PHILADELPHIA – If the National Football League has their way, sanctions will be issued and a special investigator will be appointed to the NFL’s $1 billion Concussion Settlement program, as the league alleges an independent claims administrator determined that 23 percent of the claims submitted to it were fraudulent.
AUSTIN – On April 24, Attorney General Ken Paxton commended Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller and a top lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice after they presented powerful oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of Texas’ redistricting maps.
DALLAS – SightLine Health LLC has agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit over allegations it violated the Anti-Kickback Statute regarding Medicare.
AUSTIN - A new study by the Spectrum Institute has determined that the Supreme Court of Texas is allowing the adult guardianship system throughout the to operate in violation of the mandates of the ADA and Section 504.
My law school years (1977-80) at the University of Texas were, in hindsight, close to idyllic. I loved my first-year professors, tuition at UT was dirt cheap, Austin was a wonderful place to live, and I reveled in the “college town” ambience, which was new to me. (Prior to arriving at UT, I had never attended a college football game. During my first year—when the Longhorns went undefeated in the regular season and Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy–I had season tickets on the 50-yard line at UT’s gigantic Memorial Stadium, for a pittance that even a broke law student could afford.) The post-game victory spectacle—honking horns on the Drag and the Tower lit up in orange—formed indelible memories.
AUSTIN – On Jan. 23, Attorney General Ken Paxton praised President Donald Trump’s nomination of Deputy Solicitor General J. Campbell Barker to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
HOUSTON – The New Year promises to be a busy one for the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas with a docket that includes pending cases against a former Texas lawmaker and two of his aides.
HOUSTON – A pair of class action lawsuits against the federal government over Hurricane Harvey flood damage and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to release water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs are moving forward following a federal judge's decision earlier in December.
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been part of coalitions three times this year that filed friend of the court briefs in federal courts in support of President Donald Trump's executive order, or proclamation, enforcing a travel plan on some nations.
AUSTIN – Gov. Greg Abbott has announced his general counsel, Jimmy Blacklock, will fill the vacancy on the Texas Supreme Court Justice Don R. Willett will create if confirmed by the Senate for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
AUSTIN – In an effort to prevent Texas from becoming a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants seeking abortions, Attorney General Ken Paxton headed an eight-state coalition to head off abortion on demand for aliens who are in the United States illegally without success.
AUSTIN – On Oct. 17, Attorney General Ken Paxton detailed his support of Texas’ voter ID law in a brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ahead of a hearing scheduled for the week of Dec. 4 in New Orleans.
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton promised to appeal an Aug. 24 federal court decision granting a permanent injunction against Texas’ voter ID law (Senate Bill 14).
DALLAS – The U.S. government moved to seize the assets of Dallas attorney Tshombe Anderson after Anderson pled guilty Aug. 3 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a case that also involves four of his family members.
AUSTIN – Although an Aug. 15 decision upheld the vast majority of Texas congressional district map, Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed his disappointment with a portion of a federal court decision on maps that the district court itself adopted in 2012 and have been in effect for the last three election cycles.
Looking back at the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed by Congress in 1990[1], one has to be struck by the extent to which the ADA’s lofty sentiments have been overwhelmed by its adverse results. If it’s true that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the ADA is a veritable Autobahn of wishful thinking gone awry. Yet no one seems inclined to reroute the ill-fated traffic; some states are even widening the highway with additional lanes.
The unexpected retirement of Judge Janice Rogers Brown, 68, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will trigger a well-deserved celebration of her extraordinary judicial career, both as a federal appellate judge (since 2005) and previously as a member of the California Supreme Court (1996 to 2005). It will be difficult for President Donald Trump to appoint a replacement that comes anywhere close to filling the shoes of the of the forceful, fearless, and independent Brown, whose nomination by President George W. Bush to the nation’s second most influential court in 2003 was delayed for two years by Democratic opposition.Despite a filibuster in the U.S. Senate, Brown was ultimately confirmed in 2005 by a 56 to 43 vote, when the so-called Gang of 14 reached an agreement to avoid Republicans’ invocation of the “nuclear option.” Hopefully, Brown will continue to serve on the D.C. Circuit as a judge with “senior status.”