Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson pushed lawmakers to establish a commission to investigate wrongful convictions at his biannual State of the Judiciary speech on Wednesday. 

For the elected judges on the state's highest civil court, the trick is to survive politically without thinking about politics — even on big political issues like school finance.

Reigniting the flames of a years-long battle over plaques at the Texas Supreme Court building, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has filed a motion to remove a marker that the historical group says inadequately honors the Confederacy.

State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond has filed a bill to abolish the Court of Criminal Appeals and bring all of its related cases under the Texas Supreme Court. He's triggering a debate that goes all the way back to Reconstruction.

A Texas Supreme Court decision approving standardized divorce forms will give poor people easier access to divorce than ever before. But opponents of the forms worry that without a lawyer's help, the process could go wrong.

This week in the Texas Weekly Newsreel: It's freshman orientation at the Texas Capitol, and Gov. Rick Perry has appointed a new Texas Supreme Court justice and a new secretary of state. 

For a second time — and likely the last — the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Michelle Gaines, who suffered debilitating injuries in a 2006 car accident.

The Supreme Court of Texas has dismissed a challenge by Nestle Inc. and two other businesses targeting the state’s franchise tax. The court said that the tax squares with the Texas and U.S. constitutions.

Michelle Gaines is unlikely to ever live on her own after an auto accident. A jury awarded her $8 million in damages, but the decision was overturned. Her lawyers argue that if her appeal isn't heard, it would set a troubling precedent. 

A Texas Supreme Court GOP runoff has eight-year incumbent David Medina defending his spot against John Devine, a former district court judge known for his battle to keep the Ten Commandments displayed in his courtroom.

In a case with potentially vast implications for groundwater rules, the court has unanimously ruled in favor of two farmers in the San Antonio area who challenged a local aquifer authority's restrictions on their well use.

The Texas Supreme Court could decide by this week whether it erred in allowing pipeline companies to force their way onto private land. As Dave Fehling of StateImpact Texas reports, the legal wrangling comes as drilling in the state is surging.

Despite the State Bar of Texas' suggestion to hold off on creating simple divorce forms, the Texas Supreme Court has decided not to halt the work of task force charged with creating forms that improve access to the courts for the poor.

Nearly five years into a legal battle over the constitutionality of Texas' $5-per-patron strip club fee, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take up the adult entertainment industry's case against the state. 

The Texas Supreme Court turned back a challenge to the state's primary business tax, saying it doesn't violate a constitutional ban on personal income taxes.

A successful challenge to the state's primary business tax would throw lawmakers into special session to try to find enough money to pay for public schools, a lawyer for the state told the Texas Supreme Court today.

Austin lawyer and anti-affirmative-action advocate Steven Wayne Smith is planning a return to the Texas Supreme Court.

DAY 28 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: Under a new tort reform law, the Texas Supreme Court will make rules to expedite certain lawsuits and to allow judges to dismiss meritless ones early on.