Last week’s briefing tracked Houston’s ordinance and the state’s Senate Bill 4 lawsuit in parallel threads. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — sitting en banc — vacated a long-running preliminary injunction against Texas’s 2023 immigration-enforcement statute, a ruling the Attorney General’s office immediately framed as clearing the law to take effect while federal appeals continue. The same seven days brought a crowded Texas Supreme Court hand-down in civil disputes and a burst of statewide enforcement activity from the Attorney General’s consumer-protection apparatus.
This section is deliberately a sequel to last week’s edition: Houston’s council action and the Attorney General’s SB 4 suit were already on the board. What changed midweek is the federal posture — an en banc Fifth Circuit majority vacated the preliminary injunction that had blocked Texas’s newer SB 4 from taking effect, with reporting emphasizing a standing analysis rather than a final merits determination on every underlying constitutional question.
A preliminary injunction kept Texas from implementing key SB 4 enforcement elements while district-court and appellate briefing continued.
The Fifth Circuit allowed the statute to take effect — local governments and law-enforcement agencies must reconcile any city ordinances with the state’s prohibition on policies that “materially limit” federal immigration enforcement.
The Court’s weekly PDF case summaries remain the fastest honest index when you need docket numbers before Westlaw catches up. The snapshots below track four separate disputes — education finance, family-law investigations, aviation product liability, and royalty jurisdiction — each with different downstream practice effects.
Affirmed in part; temporary-injunction analysis under the Texas Education Code’s school-finance remedy provisions, with a remand on attorney-fee questions summarized in the Judicial Branch’s April 24 case list.
Case summaries PDF — txcourts.govReversed; temporary injunctions dissolved and claims dismissed as moot — the Court’s list describes standing and mootness issues arising from state investigations into gender-affirming care for minors.
Case summaries PDF — txcourts.govMandamus conditionally granted — the summary flags interaction between Texas procedural law and a federal statute of repose governing civil aviation claims.
Case summaries PDF — txcourts.govReversed and remanded — jurisdiction and royalty-classification fights return to the court of appeals in light of Clifton v. Johnson, per the same April 24 index.
Case summaries PDF — txcourts.gov“The Texas Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality may temporarily withhold thousands of documents related to carcinogenic emission limits requested by the Sierra Club.”
— Houston Public Media / TPR reporting on the Court’s order
Open-records practice in Texas often turns on whether an agency missed the statutory window to ask the Attorney General for a confidentiality ruling. Reporting on the Court’s decision explains that justices reversed a lower judgment that had compelled disclosure, finding TCEQ timely sought AG review, while remanding for trial courts to weigh deliberative-process privilege — a familiar battleground when community groups seek raw rulemaking e-mail behind ethylene-oxide standards.
The Attorney General’s office filed state-court litigation against the national Democratic fundraising platform alleging deceptive donation flows that could mask fraudulent or foreign contributions. Election lawyers will watch choice-of-law, personal jurisdiction, and discovery battles as much as the headline fraud theories.
The Attorney General sued out-of-state online retailers alleging adulterated kratom products with roughly fifty times the legal limit for 7-hydroxymitragynine (“7-OH”). Texas’s kratom statute caps that alkaloid because of its pharmacological potency — the enforcement story is therefore a straight Tex. Health & Safety Code adulteration case dressed for national headlines.
The Attorney General announced an investigation into whether major music streaming services accepted undisclosed payments to prioritize tracks — classic payola concerns transported from FCC broadcast rules into platform economics. Discovery will implicate licensing counsel, label compliance desks, and any Texas-based promotion vendors.
The Attorney General’s press release describes a Biden-era Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule treating certain weapon-parts kits as firearms for regulatory purposes — expanding dealer and marking obligations.
Texas joined a multistate federal court victory blocking the rule; FFL compliance lawyers should still monitor any Fifth Circuit or Supreme Court rehearings because ATF guidance can shift faster than published opinions.
Amid the week’s constitutional headlines, civil practitioners still live in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The Judicial Branch publishes a consolidated PDF keyed to the Court’s periodic order adopting amendments — useful when you need pagination that matches the clerk’s desk copy during a sanctions hearing or special-appearance scramble.
Separate from SB 4, the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas’s classroom poster requirement against Establishment Clause challenges — the Attorney General’s office treated the decision as authorizing statewide implementation, while Austin ISD counsel told reporters local charter questions may still delay physical posting.
Legislature passes SB 10 mandating donated Ten Commandments posters in public-school classrooms.
Fifth Circuit decision reported alongside AG press release celebrating the defense of the statute.
District counsel interpret procurement, donation, and display policies — KUT notes Austin schools may lag while logistics catch up.
Reporting from Houston Public Media describes an extended temporary restraining order blocking new Department of State Health Services consumable-hemp rules while the industry challenges “total THC” testing definitions and fee spikes. The story is a clean regulatory follow-up to last week’s calendar note because parties reportedly agreed to postpone a merits hearing — moving the next decisive date into the week of April 28.
Initial judicial hold on DSHS enforcement according to reporting summarized April 20.
Plaintiffs and state agencies negotiate scheduling orders while retailers sell under pre-rule assumptions.
HPM reports a reset hearing calendar stretching toward month-end — verify the district clerk’s docket before advising clients on inventory holds.
These are forward-looking markers drawn from agency calendars and reporting — confirm times in the underlying docket before filing.
Houston Public Media reported a reset hearing window late in April; align with the 345th or assigned court’s online calendar.
Stories describe an agreed extension of the consumable-hemp TRO into early May — verify the exact timestamp order if you represent retailers.
During the October–June term, opinions usually post Friday mornings at txcourts.gov.
Agency posting cycles bundle air permits with enforcement consent agendas — check tceq.texas.gov for the May 6 backup once published.
Watch for mandate issues, panel rehearing votes, or emergency applications to the U.S. Supreme Court if plaintiffs seek a new federal stay.