Bloomberg Law has Texas Appeals Court Faces First Test Before Hearing Any Cases -- Texas’s new appeals court hasn’t heard a single case yet, but its authority is already on the line.
The state is trying to stand up a new appeals court for the first time in almost 60 years to bring the state’s complex business issues and thorny legislative matters before a panel of judges selected by Texas’s Republican governor, as the state’s appeals court in Austin has become more progressive. With a Sept. 1 start date, the court is different from the 14 regional appeals courts in that it will hear all cases involving state matters originating anywhere in Texas. That is, if the Supreme Court of Texas agrees it’s constitutional.