Last week’s edition tracked the Supreme Court of Texas’s May 22 civil hand-down and Attorney General tech filings. This week’s dominant arc is different: a federal appellate seesaw over Texas’s 2023 border-crime statute, a same-day burst of state high-court orders, and ERCOT’s race to lock a Batch Zero interconnection framework before summer load growth.
Unpublished order pauses Judge Ezra’s May 14 preliminary injunction — SB 4 may be enforced in full while litigation continues.
SB 4 creates state misdemeanor illegal-entry and reentry offenses, authorizes magistrate removal orders, and has been enjoined, partially enforced, and re-blocked since 2023. The week closed with the Fifth Circuit lifting most of Judge Ezra’s May 14 stay — not a merits ruling, but a shift in what local counsel must advise clients about arrest and removal risk.
ACLU of Texas, national ACLU, and Texas Civil Rights Project sue ahead of a scheduled effective date.
78-page preliminary injunction blocks reentry crime, magistrate deportation power, and related provisions; other sections could have taken effect May 15.
Panel stays the injunction; Judge Leslie Southwick dissented. Order contains no extended reasoning — enforcement posture changes immediately pending further briefing.
Expect questions on state-officer arrest authority, magistrate removal hearings, and overlap with federal immigration proceedings.
Sheriffs and municipal attorneys must reconcile SB 4 with existing Operation Lone Star cooperation policies and jail ICE detainers.
Plaintiffs pledged continued challenge; monitor Fifth Circuit briefing schedule and any DPS enforcement guidance.
Justice Huddle’s unanimous opinion holds that when claims against a licensed design professional are dismissed without prejudice under TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 150.002 for lack of a certificate of merit, the plaintiff may reassert those claims in an amended petition in the same lawsuit by filing the required affidavit — without treating the dismissal as a new filing for limitations purposes in the first instance.
Petition names licensed architect; no § 150.002 affidavit attached.
Same case remains pending; amended petition adds only the required certificate — Court affirms denial of Rule 91a-style dismissal, reserves relation-back/limitations fight for trial court if pleaded.
“The facial visibility of courtroom participants is an essential feature of a properly functioning justice system.”
Supreme Court of Texas · advisory order · May 29, 2026
All nine justices directed Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 Judge D’Metria Benson to withdraw a standing order requiring masks for attorneys, witnesses, and jurors. The Court expressed sympathy for Benson’s health needs but held that absent a major public health emergency, courtroom mask mandates impose undue burdens on participants and public access. Benson may still take personal precautions that do not burden others.
The Court declined Texas Equal Access Fund’s petition to revive its challenge to SB 8–style private enforcement procedure — a procedural win for the defendant who had sought to investigate the fund under the Heartbeat Act.
Law360 reported the denial Friday evening. Abortion-access advocates had sought high-court review of whether the fund could be subjected to civil investigative demands; the order leaves lower-court procedure in place without addressing constitutional merits of the Heartbeat framework.
Thomas Smith — an assistant attorney general endorsed by Ken Paxton — defeated Alison Fox, a longtime Court of Criminal Appeals staff attorney, in the Republican primary runoff according to Associated Press results reported by the Texas Tribune. The race drew a judicial-conduct complaint over campaign rhetoric about Fox’s former law firm’s clients.
Illustrative bar widths from reported unofficial totals; confirm against Secretary of State canvass.
ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee unanimously advanced PGRR 145 and NPRR 1325 — the transitional cluster study for very large loads (chiefly data centers) — toward a June 1 board vote and July 10 target effective date. Declarations of intent from participating loads are due July 24, pairing with PUCT Project No. 58481’s large-load interconnection standard.
Cleared early May
Unanimous May 24
Target June 1
July 24, 2026
In a per curiam disposition earlier in the term (not rehashed here as new merits law this week), the Court granted review, vacated the Third Court’s judgment, and remanded Jonathan Noyes’s challenge to a lifetime firearm ban in a protective order — instructing the court of appeals to apply United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680 (2024). Justice Hawkins’s concurrence flags the “GVR” as a petition-stage tool practitioners should raise when intervening U.S. Supreme Court precedent changes the analysis before merits briefing.
Permanent protective order disarms Noyes for life after stalking findings.
Affirms before Rahimi issues.
Grant, vacate, remand under Tex. R. App. P. 59.1, 60.2(f) — Third Court must reconsider temporary vs. lifetime disarmament standards.
The Second Court held an applicant failed ineffective-assistance and involuntary-plea claims where the habeas judge credited trial counsel that the defendant admitted sexual assaults occurred after age seventeen. Without Strickland prejudice from additional age investigation — including a “Fortnite timing” theory — Article 11.072 relief was unavailable.
The Second Court of Appeals issued a memorandum opinion Friday overruling all issues and affirming Fulbright’s capital murder conviction and sentence from the trial court — a procedural close to a high-profile Wichita Falls-area case watched locally since 2025.
Governor Greg Abbott named Andrew Friedrichs chair and Shari Nightingale to the Family Violence Criminal Homicide Prevention Task Force (May 26), appointed Shane Roethle and reappointed Robert “Reeves” Hayter to the Sulphur River Basin Authority (May 29), and appointed Janine Turner to the Texas Commission on the Arts (May 28) — routine appointments with statutory policy-development mandates for water infrastructure and domestic-violence prevention data.
PGRR 145 / NPRR 1325 expected on the agenda; energy and data-center counsel should track any last-minute eligibility amendments from the May TAC meeting.
Coastal local-government and insurance practitioners should review disaster-declaration templates; Governor Abbott renewed multiple severe-weather disaster proclamations in May.
Monitor for scheduled argument and any DPS enforcement guidance after the May 29 stay of the Ezra injunction.
If board-approved, large-load interconnection rules shift to collective study; Form W declarations due July 24.
June remains within the annual term; expect additional civil hand-downs while trial courts absorb May 29 orders.
Smith’s runoff win sets the GOP lineup for Place 3; compare against Democratic nominee and Libertarian filings on the Secretary of State site.