Arbitration agreements appear in several industries, automobile dealerships, online subscriptions and, of course, in many jobs. The employer will often ask a new employee to sign an arbitration agreement in their first few days of a new job. But, are all those arbitration agreements binding? In Mertens v. Benelux, the Fifth Circuit applied Texas
The act known as “bills of attainder” is old. It goes back to pre-1776 England. A bill of attainder occurred when Parliament would pass a bill that settled a legal dispute. A bill of attainder could find that certain creditors were not in fact owed money, or that certain heirs cannot in fact inherit. It
Bexar County Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez has been indicted by the Bexar County District Attorney for placing a defense lawyer in handcuffs and ordering her restricted to the jury box. The incident occurred over a year ago. Elizabeth Russell appeared in court and asked for time to confer with her client in preparation for a
Judge Fred Biery has developed a reputation for humor and an insistence on courtroom courtesy. He once ordered a set of contrary lawyers to kiss on the lips in front of the Alamo with cameras present. He has ordered other mis-behaving lawyers to sit in timeout in the rotunda of the old Federal courthouse. I
Kate Rogers, the Alamo Trust CEO, was forced to resign last Fall by Lt-Gov. Dan Patrick. Lt-Gov. Patrick publicly criticized Ms. Rogers’ discussion in a dissertation regarding Critical Race Theory, “reproductive rights of women” and the like. Her dissertation also stated she did not believe politicians should decide what professional educators should teach in the
This really is the season of hunting free speech advocates. I just penned a post on Universities throttling a professor’s free speech rights, and here comes Gov. Abbott with more of the same. The Governor of the Great State of Texas shared a post about a University of Texas professor who had been fired from
In a recent survey, only 12 out of 65 Federal Judges agreed that the U.S. Supreme Court makes appropriate use of the emergency docket. The emergency docket refers to the process by which a litigant can bypass the courts of appeals and go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. There have been far more emergency
It’s amazing how many average persons believe they enjoy free speech protection in all sorts of private sector environments. No, we do not enjoy free speech protection in our private sector jobs. The First Amendment applies to state and local governments. That has been the law since forever. One professor at Texas State University, Tom
I have practiced law for some 30 years and never heard the term “shadow docket.” But, it has now become a very large deal in 2025. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law School, wrote a piece in the ABA Bar Journal explaining this revolution in Supreme Court practice. The shadow docket has become paramount. The
An increasingly common employment agreement is one which requires the employee to forfeit a part of his/her salary if certain conditions are not met. In Rieves v. Buc-ee’s, 532 S.W.3d 845 (Tex.App. Hou. (14th District.) 2017), the Fourteenth Court of Appeals addressed one such agreement. In her agreement, Kelley Rieves agreed to give up