by Staff | May 5, 2015 | Uncategorized
(http://gov.texas.gov/news/press-release/20836) Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Judge Debra Ibarra Mayfield as judge of the 165th Judicial District Court in Harris County for a term to expire at the next general election in November 2016. Judge Mayfield currently serves as judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law Number One, where she has held office since 2011, and she currently serves as Administrative Judge of the County Civil Courts. In 2013, she was selected as a “Woman on the Move” by Texas Executive Women. She is also the past president of the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston, received the 2014 “Public Service Award” from South Texas College of Law, and is on the board of the Institute of Hispanic Culture. Judge Mayfield received a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and a law degree from South Texas College of Law. This appointment is subject to Senate...
by Staff | Apr 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
April 29, 2015 (http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/04/in-plain-english-justices-finally-find-speech-they-do-not-like-and-its-by-would-be-judges/) In the past few years, the Roberts Court has been very supportive of the freedom of speech, ruling in favor of protests by the Westboro Baptist Church at a soldier’s funeral, violent video games for children, videos depicting dog-fighting, and lies about receiving prestigious military medals. But today an unusual coalition of five Justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s four more liberal Justices – agreed on one kind of speech that the governmentcan ban: personal solicitations of campaign funds by people running for judgeships. Let’s talk about the ruling in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar in Plain English. As I explained in my earlier coverage of the case, in 2009 Lanell Williams-Yulee was running for a seat on a county court in Florida. In an effort to raise money, she sent out a mass mailing with a personal appeal for campaign contributions; she posted the same letter on her campaign website. That got her into trouble with the Florida Bar, the group that regulates lawyers and judges in Florida, because the code of conduct for Florida judges prohibits candidates for judgeships from personally soliciting campaign funds. Williams-Yulee fired back, arguing that her right to ask for campaign contributions is protected by the First Amendment. That defense fell short in the disciplinary proceedings that followed, in the Florida Supreme Court, and today at the U.S. Supreme Court. In his opinion for the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that the Florida Bar faced an uphill challenge in defending its ban: it would have to show the ban targets, as closely as possible, an...
by Staff | Apr 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
April 14, 20015 (http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/other-voices/article18534641.html) by George S. Christian Important public policy is making its way through the Texas Legislature that will correct a serious and inadvertent flaw in the ability of the state to promote compliance with environmental standards and encourage prompt remediation of contaminated sites. Under existing law, local governments may sue individuals and businesses to collect penalties for alleged environmental violations. While this provision has been in the law for decades, it has recently been used to seek billions of dollars in penalties going back for decades — despite the fact that the alleged polluters have spent millions of dollars cleaning up the contamination under the guidance and direction of the state. In at least one of these cases, the so-called violator didn’t even own the property when most of the alleged violations occurred. These “penalty-only” lawsuits are intended to punish wrongdoers and deter people from committing environmental violations. In these recent cases, however, the targets of the lawsuits were in compliance with remediation programs administered by the state. In other words, the lawsuits sought to punish businesses for doing exactly what they were supposed to do. House Bill 1794 by state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, is a commonsense approach that allows local governments to continue to seek substantial penalties to stop and deter environmental violations, but does not permit the recovery of unlimited penalties when the alleged polluter notifies the state of a violation and works in good faith with the state to clean up the mess. Despite claims by some of the opponents of the bill, nothing in HB 1794 prevents a local government...
by Staff | Apr 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
April 13, 2014 (http://setexasrecord.com/arguments/302808-keeping-texas-competitive-starts-with-smart-permitting) by Jennifer Harris AUSTIN – All Texans can vividly recall former Gov. Rick Perry travelling across the nation to lure businesses to the Lone Star State. Gov. Greg Abbott has continued this practice and both leaders rightly hammered home the benefits of Texas’ as a low tax, low regulation state that lets businesses thrive. Yet, our state is at a serious disadvantage in a key area and the same type of regulatory complications our leaders rightfully deride in other states are now suffocating economic growth right here in Texas. The problem? The excessive time it can take to get a permit for any major environmental project if the project gets stuck in the contested case hearing process — a process that in other states takes about six months, but in Texas can drag out for years. The process is so long, convoluted and overly-litigious that other states are now pointing to it as reason for why companies should ignore the Lone Star State. In a state that has created one in four jobs nationwide since 2009, this is completely unacceptable. This legislative session, there are several bills pending that would work to preserve the public participation and contested cases processes in Texas, while also streamlining and reducing abuse in the system. HB 1247, HB 1113, and HB 1865 would all work in unison to allow potential new businesses to have some peace of mind and predictability in forecasting the length of permitting when they’re looking to start new projects in Texas. These bills would, in turn, speed up a companies permitting approval period, while also continuing to...
by Staff | Apr 1, 2015 | Uncategorized
March 31, 2015 (http://www.tala.com/keeping-texas-economically-competitive-starts-smart-permitting/) All Texans can vividly recall former Governor Rick Perry travelling across the nation to lure businesses to the Lone Star State. Governor Greg Abbott has continued this practice and both leaders rightly hammered home the benefits of Texas’ as a low tax, low regulation state that lets businesses thrive. Yet, our state is at a serious disadvantage in a key area and the same type of regulatory complications our leaders rightfully deride in other states are now suffocating economic growth right here in Texas. The problem? The excessive time it can take to get a permit for any major environmental project if the project gets stuck in the contested case hearing process — a process that in other states takes about six months, but in Texas can drag out for years. The process is so long, convoluted and overly-litigious that other states are now pointing to it as reason for why companies should ignore the Lone Star State. In a state that has created one in four jobs nationwide since 2009, this is completely unacceptable. This legislative session, there are several bills pending that would work to preserve the public participation and contested cases processes in Texas, while also streamlining and reducing abuse in the system. HB 1247, HB 1113, and HB 1865 would all work in unison to allow potential new businesses to have some peace of mind and predictability in forecasting the length of permitting when they’re looking to start new projects in Texas. These bills would, in turn, speed up a companies permitting approval period, while also continuing to protect the environment....
