The week Texas law moved from the courtroom to the street. Five deadlines. Four rulings. One execution date. Law is no longer pending — it is present.
"The attorney general need only have a reasonable belief — not proof — that an organization possesses information relevant to an investigation to issue a civil investigative demand."
The Court reversed the district court, which had blocked the civil investigative demand. A CID under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.61) is an investigative tool — not a complaint or accusation. But the Court found courts should not second-guess the AG's investigative decisions absent clear abuse. For practitioners advising nonprofit organizations, this ruling substantially lowers the bar for CID compliance: if your client has filed an affidavit in any litigation involving state policy, the AG may now issue a CID on a reasonable-belief standard that courts will rarely review.
Houston Public Media — PFLAG Must Turn Over Records OAG Press Release — CID Authority AffirmedThis edition's follow-up from last week: on March 18, 2026, Senate Bill 12 moved from pending appellate litigation to active criminal and civil exposure. Performers, venues, and event organizers statewide are now legally subject to enforcement for the first time since the law passed in 2023.
Practitioners advising performing arts organizations, bars, and event venues must now treat SB 12 as operative law. The Fifth Circuit found only Woodlands Pride has standing — but that ruling does not protect other organizations. Any venue or performer operating in Texas who presents a "sexually oriented performance" as defined by Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 131 now faces exposure. What constitutes a "sexually oriented performance" is still being litigated; until the district court issues guidance on remand, conservative interpretation is required. Family-friendly drag performances expressly remain legal under the court's analysis.
KUT Radio — Texas Enforces Drag Ban Starting March 18On June 19, 2008 — Juneteenth — two Christian music producers were fatally shot during a robbery in Garland, Texas. Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, were killed for $2. James Broadnax, then 19, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2009. His cousin, Demarius Cummings, received life without parole. Both have been imprisoned ever since.
On March 11, 2026 — 50 days before Broadnax's scheduled execution — Cummings signed a sworn confession stating that he, not Broadnax, fired the fatal shots. Cummings claims he persuaded his cousin to take responsibility because Broadnax had no prior record, while Cummings had prior convictions. He states DNA evidence on the murder weapon connects him to the trigger.
Capital defense practitioners in Texas must navigate the intersection of the CCA's subsequent writ procedures (Art. 11.071 § 5) and the federal exhaustion requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2254. A confession by a co-defendant — particularly one who has already been convicted and has nothing to gain — is among the stronger pieces of newly available evidence for actual innocence gateway purposes. The CCA's timeline is compressed; stay motions require immediate action. Broadnax's team must establish that this evidence was unavailable at trial with due diligence.
Dallas Morning News — Cousin Confesses a Month Before Broadnax Execution KERA News — Broadnax Execution and Cousin's ConfessionIn a decision that rewrites a key assumption of Texas construction law, the Texas Supreme Court held 5-4 in S&B Engineers & Constructors, Ltd. v. Scallon Controls, Inc. that a party may pursue contractual proportional indemnification even after settling with the plaintiff — provided the contract's express negligence clause complies with Texas law.
Settling a tort claim without the indemnitor's participation effectively extinguished a proportional indemnity claim. Based on Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Jinkins, courts treated settlement as a waiver of downstream indemnity rights.
A settling party with a proportional indemnity clause may pursue indemnification post-settlement — if the settlement was made in good faith, for a reasonable amount, and the contract expressly indemnifies only the other party's proportionate share of negligence.
The case arose from a 2015 scaffolding accident at a Sunoco refinery that injured seven workers. S&B settled for $6.75 million (contributing $2.35M, with insurer Zurich adding $400K) then sought proportional indemnification from Scallon Controls under their subcontract. Justice Young's majority distinguished this from contribution claims — the contract here allocated liability proportionally, not as a guarantee of full indemnity. The dissent, joined by four justices, warned the ruling "untethers settlement from longstanding precedent" and creates a "case within a case" litigation hazard.
For construction lawyers: review every subcontract's indemnity clause. If it uses proportional language ("to the extent of [party's] negligence" or "allocable share"), it may now survive post-settlement. Clients who settle tort claims against subcontractors should ensure the settlement amount is defensibly reasonable — because that reasonableness will be scrutinized when they pursue indemnity later.
JDSupra — Texas Supreme Court: Indemnity Survives $6.75M SettlementFrom last week's edition: Texas excluded hundreds of Islamic schools from its Education Savings Account program, citing alleged connections to CAIR (which Governor Abbott designated a terrorist organization in November 2025 — a designation the U.S. State Department has never issued). This week, a federal court responded.
U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett issued a preliminary injunction on March 17, 2026, ordering Texas to extend the voucher application deadline from March 17 to March 31 and to allow previously excluded Islamic schools to register. The court required the state to update its website, prevent determination of funding recipients until after the new deadline, and cease discriminatory application of the CAIR-affiliation exclusion.
Following the order, the state accepted the suing Islamic schools into the program. A second hearing is scheduled for late April to address the constitutional questions: whether the exclusion violates the Free Exercise Clause, Equal Protection, or both. Education lawyers advising religious schools should track the late-April briefing schedule — the outcome may define how Texas may condition public benefit programs on religious associations.
Texas Tribune — Judge Extends Voucher DeadlineAn Oklahoma district court dismissed a lawsuit in which Bryan County, Oklahoma, landowner Craig Hilliard sought to quiet title to approximately 165 acres of Texas land, claiming that natural accretion along the Red River had shifted the state line southward. Attorney General Paxton invoked sovereign immunity and the 1999 Red River Boundary Compact — and prevailed.
Bryan County District Judge Mark R. Campbell dismissed the case on March 8, 2026. A second similar lawsuit by another Oklahoma landowner remains pending. For property lawyers advising clients with land near river boundaries: riparian boundary disputes are a growing category of litigation as rivers shift. The Red River Compact provides a clear resolution in Texas's case — but other Texas waterway boundaries (particularly the Rio Grande) remain subject to ongoing accretion and erosion disputes that lack comparable compact authority.
FOX 4 Dallas — Court Ruling Settles Texas-Oklahoma Red River Fight Texas Scorecard — Red River Land Dispute UpdateThis edition's follow-up on hemp enforcement: following Governor Abbott's Executive Order GA-56 (September 2025), the Texas Department of State Health Services adopted new hemp regulations on March 2, 2026 — after reviewing 1,400+ public comments. They take effect March 31. Most smokable hemp products will become illegal under a new "total THC" formula.
Edibles remain legal under the new rules — provided they use child-resistant, resealable packaging and comply with enhanced testing and labeling requirements. Age verification (21+, government-issued ID) is mandatory for all hemp purchases. Criminal defense attorneys advising hemp-derived THC retailers should note that the March 31 effective date creates a hard compliance cliff: businesses operating with smokable inventory after that date face enforcement under a significantly clarified legal standard, unlike the grey zone that enabled the 15+ raids since August 2024.
Community Impact — Smokable Hemp Illegal in Texas After March 31 This & That CBD — Texas Hemp Laws 2026 OverviewThe Texas Railroad Commission formally assumed primary enforcement authority over Class VI underground injection wells from the U.S. EPA, with full authority effective December 15, 2025. A Texas Tribune report published March 20, 2026, brought renewed attention to the regulatory shift and its implications for Gulf Coast carbon capture projects.
Attorney General Paxton wrote to Collin County Commissioners Court on March 12, 2026, asking them to continue denying land plat applications from the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) City development — also known as "The Meadow." Paxton's office filed suit in February 2026, alleging that the development's utility district engaged in "illegal annexation of land" designed to evade state oversight and facilitate an Islamic-centric real estate community.
The Texas Supreme Court issued orders on March 20, 2026 — including a per curiam reversal in a family law appeal from Collin County. Beyond the Scallon indemnity ruling and the PFLAG CID decision, this was the Court's third active order week of March.
The Court denied five motions for rehearing this week — a reminder that Texas Supreme Court denial rates for rehearing are extremely high. Practitioners whose petitions for review were denied in the March 6 or March 20 orders should evaluate whether the issue has federal constitutional implications (potentially supporting a petition to SCOTUS) or whether the matter is best addressed legislatively or through regulatory channels.
Texas Judicial Branch — March 20, 2026 OrdersThe most consequential legal deadlines of the spring converge in the next forty days. Here is what Texas practitioners should be tracking.