Courts

If confirmed, Busby, a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk, would replace Justice Phil Johnson, who retired after 13 years on the high court.

For the second week in a row, the Senate Nominations Committee failed to bring Whitley up for a vote. And he's gained a new public adversary: the leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

An assistant attorney general said counties should have reviewed their lists of flagged voters to determine whether they had reason to believe the voters were ineligible before requiring them to prove their citizenship.

This time, the majority of the justices said Moore has shown he is intellectually disabled.

Billed as a consumer-protection effort, the proposal would allow approved individuals to serve as investment advisers without registering with the state board — a felony under Texas law that Ken Paxton was charged with in 2015.

A Paxton deputy told a Guadalupe County official Feb. 1 that the attorney general's office "has pending criminal investigations related to these issues."

Some lawmakers had fretted that sending the preliminary, faulty list to the state's top prosecutor would intimidate voters.

An appointment to the high court would require a two-thirds confirmation vote, potentially handing Texas Senate Democrats an important bargaining chip in the contentious legislative debates to come.

In the wake of a midterm election that saw four major state appeals courts flip on partisan lines, Hecht called on lawmakers to consider changing Texas to a system of merit selection and retention elections.

Two years after a bail reform bill died in the Legislature, new bail legislation has other factors working in its favor.

The ACLU and others are asking a federal court to block counties from sending notices requiring certain voters to prove their citizenship.

Paxton's office has asked lawmakers for millions more in funding and expanded jurisdiction to go after certain crimes. Critics say the requests are aimed at political gains.

The plaintiffs allege the state's move to flag tens of thousands of registered voters for citizenship reviews violates the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act.

Atascosa County resident Julie Hilberg — a naturalized citizen whose registration was flagged by the state — is joining a lawsuit against top Texas officials.

Nearly two decades after the U.S. Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to execute those with intellectual disabilities, Texas still has no process on determining the condition — leaving life-and-death decisions in the hands of courts with very different methods.

Jennings was put to death Wednesday for the 1988 murder of Elston Howard. The long sentence was complicated by constantly evolving death penalty laws.

Thirteen groups issued the warning, and some are considering suing the state.

Justices questioned whether revealing the name would risk physical harm to the supplier — or only hurt its business.

Last week, a federal judge in New York ordered the administration to stop its plans to add the question to the survey.

A group of Texans is headed to court in hopes of blocking the Trump administration from including a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Here's a primer on the legal fight and what it could mean for the state.