Voters statewide elect three justices to the new 15th Court of Appeals, created in 2023. Gov. Greg Abbott’s GOP appointees face their first election for six-year terms.
The high court, currently made up entirely of Republicans, decides some of the most consequential cases impacting everyday Texans’ lives. Here’s a look at who’s running for the court’s four seats on the 2026 ballot.
Judge Dianne Hensley, who has been fighting the state judicial oversight body since 2019, is hoping to tee up a new challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
Courts have said that the attorney general can use a 100-year-old law to demand entities’ internal records and sue to shut them down if he believes they’re violating the law.
Until being labeled as the "radical left," Brown was widely supported by Texas Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who previously hired him as his clerk. Abbott called the ruling “clearly erroneous.”
Hawkins spent two years as Texas’ top appellate attorney, but resigned soon after not signing onto Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2020 election challenge.
The latest calls to stave off the politically charged execution come after a summer where GOP leaders asked the state courts to kick Democrats out of office and throw Beto O’Rourke in jail.
The court, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, recently allowed O’Rourke to continue raising and dispersing donations, and cast doubt on Paxton’s main arguments.
The governor and attorney general have asked the court to find that Democratic lawmakers abandoned their seats when they left Texas to delay a new congressional map.
Since Democratic lawmakers left Texas to delay Republicans’ new map, state leaders have challenged the limits of traditional democratic norms to break the impasse.
The Texas Supreme Court said in 2021 the Constitution allows members to thwart legislation by leaving the state. Abbott wants them to reconsider.
The attorney general is also looking into the George Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC, which is playing a coordinating role to solicit donations from Democratic donors.
The decision, stemming from a 2022 lawsuit, narrows the public’s legal options to challenge Texas officials under the state’s open records law.
Former Empower Texans leader Michael Quinn Sullivan has challenged a $10,000 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission for failure to register as a lobbyist for more than 10 years at nearly every level of the state court system.
The State Bar of Texas has rescinded a speaking invitation to the NAACP’s president after the civil rights group challenged the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Education Department.
For the first time since Texas outlawed nearly all abortions, lawmakers are clarifying the “life of mother” exception. But they don’t plan to address cases where the fetus won’t survive.
Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock embraced constitutional originalism, a judicial philosophy tied to conservatism, in addressing the Legislature.
Here’s how federal courts help determine the fate of controversial issues, such as immigration laws, in Texas and beyond.
The state bar had sought to sanction Paxton, which could have carried a punishment ranging from a private reprimand to disbarment.
The court’s ruling could boost a state law that allows drunk driving victims to sue businesses that over-serve alcohol to intoxicated individuals.
Blacklock replaces Nathan Hecht, the longest serving justice on the high court. Gov. Greg Abbott also appointed his general counsel, James Sullivan, to the bench.
The state bar sought to take away the law license of Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster over a Texas lawsuit challenging 2020 presidential election results.
Over 35 years, Hecht modernized the court, increased access to justice for the poor and saw his conservative views come to dominate the bench.
As a legal chess match continues over a death row inmate’s life, the Texas Supreme Court has weighed in, saying a legislative committee that delayed Robert Roberson’s execution date did not have the power to stop a scheduled sentence.
Robert Roberson may have had his execution date postponed, but time is running out for whether he will get to testify.
After the attorney general insisted on the death row inmate’s guilt in a graphic press release, four lawmakers issued a point-by-point rebuttal.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence “stepped out of line” by subpoenaing death row inmate Robert Roberson and delaying his execution.
Three of the five judges who allowed Robert Roberson’s execution to proceed will be leaving the court after Paxton-backed primary challenges.
Robert Roberson, who had been set to be the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, had his execution delayed after a dramatic few hours of legal wrangling among three different Texas courts.
The state’s highest civil court said it wants a lower court to resolve a separation-of-powers issue raised by a group of Texas lawmakers who subpoenaed the death row inmate the night before he was set to be put to death.
Three Republican incumbents are being targeted for their role in recent abortion rulings by a new Democratic political action committee.
The Texas Supreme Court has denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s filing seeking to stop the State Fair of Texas from prohibiting handguns on the property.
The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths and rejected pleas from parents that it violates their right to decide on and seek care for their children.
Parents and medical providers of transgender adolescents sued Texas, challenging the constitutionality of a restriction on puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Harris County from sending financial assistance to in-need families under a new income pilot program after a political match between the Texas Attorney General.
The Texas Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S. following a lawsuit by women who had serious pregnancy complications.
The recent ruling in Alabama that frozen embryos are legally considered children has created a political firestorm after the decision halted treatment for many couples trying to have families through fertility treatments.
A fight over allowing transgender children to access puberty blockers and hormone therapies could hinge on justices’ interpretation of parental rights.
The Supreme Court of Texas ruled against Cox’s lawsuit to block the state’s abortion ban. She traveled out of state to have an abortion.
Attorney General Ken Paxton is speaking out after a false report was made to 911 by an unidentified caller describing a “life-threatening situation” at his family’s McKinney home on New Year’s Day.
Kelcy Warren, a Dallas pipeline billionaire, sued O’Rourke in early 2022, saying the Democrat defamed him with critical comments about his company’s windfall profits after the Texas energy-grid collapse in February 2021.
A judge ruled that Kate Cox was allowed to terminate her non-viable pregnancy, but on Friday night, the Texas Supreme Court put that ruling on hold.
After a Travis County district judge cleared the way for Kate Cox, 31, to terminate her pregnancy, Ken Paxton petitioned the state’s highest court to halt the ruling.
In August, a judge ruled that the state’s near-total abortion ban should not apply to medically complicated pregnancies. The state appealed that ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, putting it on hold.
The Texas Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on Tuesday from litigators on behalf of 22 women who were denied abortions.
Former top aides to the Texas attorney general are seeking damages for their firings after they reported Paxton to the FBI. The Legislature opted not to authorize a $3.3 million settlement in the lawsuit.
Texas Supreme Court justices heard arguments Wednesday in the case of a Waco judge who refused to marry same-sex couples. It is unclear when the high court will issue a ruling.
The whistleblower lawsuit, which argues that four senior staffers were improperly fired in retaliation for reporting Paxton to the FBI, returns to a Travis County trial court for action.
Lawyers criticize a provision they say erodes the separation of powers between Texas’ executive branch and its courts. It’s been used repeatedly this year as Texans try to block new state laws from going into effect
After the latest wave of legal rulings on restrictions for transgender people, a Texas ban on gender-affirming care for minors is in effect.
The Texas Supreme Court will allow the new state law banning gender-affirming care for minors to take effect on Friday, setting up Texas to be the most populous state with such restrictions on transgender children.
The Texas Supreme Court will allow the new state law banning gender-affirming care for minors to take effect on Friday, setting up Texas to be the most populous state with such restrictions on transgender children.
The ruling means the November elections in the state’s largest county will be overseen by two other county officials. Legislators targeted Harris County’s elections department after taking issue with the way the 2022 elections were run.
The Texas Supreme Court denied Harris County’s request to temporarily block the implementation of Senate Bill 1750 on Sept. 1, which will abolish the Harris County Election Administrator’s Office, the Harris County Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.
The all-Republican court narrowly found that the nonprofit corporation operating the state’s electrical grid qualifies for sovereign immunity, which protects government entities from lawsuits.
In his biennial state of the judiciary, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht also warned against politics’ encroachment into the third branch of government.
Texas’ education agency first moved to take over the district in 2019 after years of low student performance at a single Houston ISD high school. Critics said the district has made improvements since then.
Lawyers for four former employees who accused the attorney general of firing them for reporting alleged crimes to authorities say Paxton won’t agree to finalizing the deadline by the end of this legislative session.
On Thursday afternoon, some parents, educators and students will hold a news conference opposing the state’s takeover of the Houston Independent School District.
The decision from the state’s highest court would allow the TEA to move forward with its plan to replace Houston ISD’s school board members over low academic scores.
Fratta was convicted in the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife. Lawyers are challenging Texas’ routine of extending the expiration dates of its lethal drugs, a practice begun when many pharmacies began refusing to provide doses for executions.
Many people and insurers sued the Electric Reliability Council of Texas after the 2021 freeze. The nonprofit says it shouldn’t be liable. The state Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in.
The program, known as Chapter 313, provides companies with billions of dollars in property tax breaks. The court said it is up to the Legislature to make the call on what to do as the program is set to expire and the state is swamped with applications.
Three seats were up for election in the Texas Supreme Court, which handles civil cases, and three in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Democrats haven’t been elected to either court since the late 1990s.
Track statewide and local vote totals for Houston, Harris County, and the surrounding counties in the Nov. 8 midterm election through the dropdown menu and interactive maps in this article.
The 2022 General Election is being held on November 8. You can find results for Texas Supreme Court, Criminal Appeals Court, and Greater Houston area judicial races on Tuesday night here.
Several abortion funds have sued anti-abortion activist Mark Lee Dickson, who called them “criminal organizations,” for defamation.
The nine-member Texas Supreme Court has the power to make sweeping decisions that interpret the meaning of the state’s constitution, impacting the lives of Texans across the state. Three seats are on the ballot this year.
Among other issues, the court will consider whether a law that updated the education code last year has any bearing on TEA Commissioner Mike Morath’s attempt to replace HISD’s board members over low academic scores.
On Aug. 8, a group of Republican candidates asked the Supreme Court to remove 23 Libertarian opponents from the ballot, saying they did not meet eligibility requirements. The Republicans included Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others in congressional and state legislative races.
Because the state is a party in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s cases against the companies, Volkswagen lawyers have argued that allowing the Texas governor to appoint justices to a case for which the state stands to win a substantial amount of money would give “the impression that the State has had undue influence.”
DECISION 2022: Texas judicial primary election results, from the state Supreme Court to district judges
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision means it could take months before abortion providers’ challenge to the restrictive law returns to a federal court.
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Young replaces former Justice Eva Guzman, who resigned in June ahead of a campaign for attorney general.
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The halt comes after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded his ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates — which previously applied to cities, counties and school districts — to private employers.
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Planned Parenthood had requested that the court reverse a decision to indefinitely pause the lawsuit, which was filed in Travis County district court.
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A panel of five judges indefinitely blocked the lawsuits last week upon the request of an anti-abortion group.
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John Ramirez was scheduled to die Wednesday. His last request to the state had been to let his pastor hold on to him as he died, something the state denied. The high court wants to hear oral arguments on the matter later this year.
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The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked San Antonio’s mask mandate for public schools Thursday — the latest in the tug-of-war legal battle between local governments and the state’s Republican leadership over mandatory face coverings.
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The legal battle over whether Texas communities can require students and others to wear masks in response to the current surge in COVID-19 cases remains entangled in a series of lawsuits, orders and appeals.
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COVID-19 is surging again in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive. Hospitalizations are increasing faster than at any other time. Local officials and school leaders are rebelling against Abbott’s ban on mask mandates. Here’s the latest.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott wanted the high court to disallow mask mandates in Texas school districts. Justices dismissed their request on a technicality, without issuing a ruling on their legal arguments.