Justia Texas Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

After the Houston City Council adopted an equal rights ordinance, Relators - residents of the City of Houston - organized a petition drive calling for the City Council to repeal the ordinance or put it to popular vote. The City Secretary certified the petition’s sufficiency, but the City Council denied it, claiming that the petition was invalid because it lacked the required number of valid signatures. Relators sought mandamus relief. The Supreme Court conditionally granted mandamus relief, holding (1) Relators did not have an adequate remedy by way of appeal for lack of sufficient time for the appeal to be finally resolved; and (2) the City Council did not perform its ministerial duty to immediately reconsider the ordinance after the City Secretary certified the petition’s sufficiency and, if it did not repeal it, to put it on the November 2015 ballot. View "In re Jared Woodfill" on Justia Law

A narrow majority of voters in the City of Houston adopted an amendment to their City Charter that was approved in the November 2, 2010 election. The amendment created a “Dedicated Pay-As-You-Go Fund for Drainage and Streets.” After the election, several voters filed an election contest seeking a declaration that the ballot proposition was invalid and a determination that the adoption of the amendment was invalid. The ballot in this case did not make clear that the amendment imposed charges directly on many voters. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the City. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that because the City did not adequately describe the chief features of the charter amendment on the ballot, the proposed amendment was not submitted with such definiteness and certainty that voters would not be misled. Remanded. View "Dacus v. Parker" on Justia Law

In this primary election case, Choco Meza, chair of the county democratic party, determined that petitions filed with Monica Caballero's application for a place on the county democratic party primary election ballot as a candidate for justice of the peace did not contain the required number of valid signatures. Caballero sued Meza, the county democratic party, and the county, and sought injunctive relief precluding them from omitting her name from the ballot. Tomas Uresti, Caballero's opponent, intervened. The trial court subsequently issued a temporary injunction effectively compelling Meza to place Caballero's name on the ballot. Uresti applied for a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to vacate its temporary injunction. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition for mandamus relief as moot, as the primary election, which Meza won, had concluded. View "In re Uresti" on Justia Law

Voters sued the Secretary of State arguing that her certification of the eSlate, a paperless direct recording electronic machine, violated the Election Code and the Texas Constitution. At issue was whether voters had standing to pursue complaints about an electronic voting machine that did not produce a contemporaneous paper record of each vote. The court held that because it concluded that most of the voters allegations involved generalized grievances about the lawfulness of government acts, and because their remaining claims failed on their merits, the court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and rendered judgment dismissing the case. View "Andrade v. NAACP, et al." on Justia Law