The latest courts news from The Texas Tribune.
A state law passed in 2011 requires Texas jails to report monthly estimates of the cost to house undocumented immigrants. This interactive table shows the total number of immigrants housed and the cost to each county from October 2011 to September 2013. Full Story
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As lawmakers in Washington call for a review of how asylum law pertains to Mexicans seeking protection, one Mexican exile is embarking on his own public relations campaign. Full Story
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Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said Monday that they will not heed a request to return a supply of execution drugs from the pharmacist who sent them to the state. Full Story
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In an effort to keep immigration reform alive during the debate over the government shutdown, congressional Democrats have filed legislation that includes elements of a border-security measure backed by a key GOP leader. Full Story
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Full video of Reeve Hamilton's sit-down with three candidates for Texas Attorney General — state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas; state Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney; and Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman — at the 2013 Texas Tribune Festival. Full Story
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One year after President Obama’s decision to allow undocumented-immigrant youths to apply for renewable work permits and a two-year reprieve from deportation proceedings, Texas — perhaps due to its immigration policies — beats the national average of approved applicants. Full Story
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Dan Morales, a former Texas attorney general who served time in federal prison, wants the state to look over some sealed documents that he thinks might be worth a lot of money. The hard part is finding someone who will listen. Full Story
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We liveblogged The 2013 Texas Tribune Festival's Keynote track, which included conversations with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and state Sen. Wendy Davis, a talk on the Tea Party's goals and a session on efforts to turn Texas blue. Read the highlights here. Full Story
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We have liveblogged each of the sessions from The 2013 Texas Tribune Festival's Immigration track. The sessions included panels on immigration reform, Latinos and the Republican Party, securing the border, and the Voting Rights Act. Full Story
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We're liveblogging this weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's Criminal Justice track, which includes panels on guilt and innocence, juvenile justice, guns, and a one-on-one conversation with Attorney General Greg Abbott. Full Story
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In this edition of the Texas Weekly Newsreel: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz talks and talks, state Rep. Bill Callegari won't seek another term, Judge Ken Anderson resigns and a poetry reading. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday said he had appointed Houston's Jeff Brown to an open spot on the Texas Supreme Court. Brown, a former state district judge, is currently a justice on Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals. Full Story
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A federal decision last year to move USDA cattle inspectors from Ojinaga, Mexico, to Presidio, Texas, has crippled the local livestock industry on both sides of the impoverished border, ranchers and cattle importers say. Full Story
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A Texas appeals court recently found that the Edwards Aquifer Authority violated a landowner's property rights in regard to groundwater. Use this document with annotations from lawyers and policy experts for a closer look at the ruling. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has warned that the state will file its 30th lawsuit against the Obama administration if a United Nations arms treaty is ratified. Full Story
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The Texas Department of Public Safety announced on Tuesday that 25 mobile locations will begin processing free election identification certificates on Oct. 1. Full Story
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Williamson County state district Judge Ken Anderson, who oversaw the wrongful murder conviction of Michael Morton in 1987, has submitted a letter to Gov. Rick Perry resigning his position effective immediately. Full Story
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Data from the Pew Research Center indicates that of the six states with the largest number of unauthorized immigrants, Texas was the only one that didn’t witness the significant dip in population figures that took place a few years ago. Full Story
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Data from the Texas criminal justice system shows that psychiatric prison units experience the most violence per capita. Use this interactive to examine the violent incidents reported at more than 90 Texas prisons between 2006 and 2012. Full Story
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A Tribune analysis of violent-incident data in state prisons shows that far more violent incidents occur at facilities with large populations of mentally ill inmates. Full Story
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