Seven of 13 sitting Texas district attorneys who faced 2018 primary challengers lost their races. Whether that’s normal turnover or part of a larger focus on criminal justice reform, several experts say it’s no longer safe to be an incumbent prosecutor.
Courts
Stay up to date on Texas courts with in-depth coverage of major rulings, judicial elections, criminal justice, and the judges shaping state law from The Texas Tribune.
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Politics
State Rep. Roland Gutierrez to seek Carlos Uresti’s seat in Texas Senate
Gutierrez is running for Texas Senate District 19, a Democratic-leaning San Antonio district that overlaps with his own and is held by a senator who was recently convicted of 11 felonies.
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Criminal Justice
A Texas judge ordered electric shocks to silence a man on trial. The conviction’s been thrown out.
The device was used as punishment for refusing to answer a judge’s questions properly during his 2016 trial on charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl.
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Texas Elections 2018
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller narrowly wins Texas Court of Criminal Appeals primary race
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller narrowly won the Republican primary Tuesday night, overcoming a challenger who knocked her for her multiple ethical controversies.
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Environment
Federal government may fight alongside Texas in water dispute, U.S. Supreme Court rules
The ruling is an apparent victory for Texas in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than five years. The states are bickering over the distribution of water from the Rio Grande. Those allocations are laid out in the 1938 Rio Grande Compact.
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Demographics
Texans join nationwide day of action urging lawmakers to act on immigration
Though the DACA program is still in effect, thousands demonstrated in El Paso and elsewhere across the country to demand Congress come up with a legislative fix to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers.”
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Texas Elections 2018
Texas judicial candidate embraces Trump and hot-button issues while raking in out-of-state donations
Judicial races in Texas are typically low-key affairs, but in the GOP race for the 3rd Court of Appeals, Michael Toth is hitting the same themes you’d see in a race for Congress. Experts say it could be a sign of things to come.
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State Government
In Texas Republican judicial primaries, do Hispanic-sounding surnames spell loss?
Hispanics rarely win seats on Texas’ two highest courts. Some experts blame the “surname challenge.”
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Courts
Federal government sues city of Houston over alleged sex discrimination at fire department
According to the lawsuit, male employees urinated on the walls, floors and sinks of the women’s bathroom and deactivated speakers in the women’s dormitory so female firefighters would be unable to respond to emergency calls.
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Politics
Court rules feds must tell DACA recipients why protections are being revoked
The decision came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined to fast-track a decision President Donald Trump wanted on the fate of the nation’s “Dreamers.”
