Texas Supreme Court

Journalists, FOI advocates urge passage of third party allegation law

FOIFT2015-03-03T04:37:39-06:00

AUSTIN - Advocates for watchdog reporting testified Monday in favor of a Senate bill that provides limited protections for news accounts about potential wrongdoing that are based on third party allegations. Senate Bill 627 would codify what has been part of common law since 1990, said Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, as she introduced her bill before the Senate State Affairs Committee, which she chairs. Laura Prather, a First Amendment attorney and co-chair of the FOI Foundation of Texas legislative committee, testified that libel law is currently unsettled in this area because of a recent Texas Supreme Court ruling. News reporters covering [...]

Journalists, FOI advocates urge passage of third party allegation lawFOIFT2015-03-03T04:37:39-06:00

Texas Supreme Court refuses to hear Greater Houston Partnership case on Texans’ right to records

FOIFT2014-10-06T15:37:46-05:00

By Mark Collette Houston Chronicle Originally published Oct. 3, 2014 The Texas Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear a lawsuit by Greater Houston Partnership that could have limited the public's right to know about government money sent to private groups. The case applies to all businesses and nonprofits in Texas that receive public funds. It allows the state attorney general to decide on a case-by-case basis which organizations must open their books under open records law, and under what circumstances. GHP's case attacked one of the earliest and most expansive constructions of Texas open records law, known as the Kneeland [...]

Texas Supreme Court refuses to hear Greater Houston Partnership case on Texans’ right to recordsFOIFT2014-10-06T15:37:46-05:00

Free speech case springs from fracking dispute

FOIFT2014-09-05T19:44:22-05:00

By Jim Malewitz The Texas Tribune Originally published Sept. 5, 2014 Steve Lipsky’s tainted water well had already stirred national debate about the impacts of oil and gas production. Now it stars in a free speech dispute that has landed in Texas’ highest court – the biggest test of a state law meant to curb attempts to stifle public protest. So much methane has migrated into the well on Lipsky’s Parker County estate that he can ignite the stream that flows from it with the flick of a barbeque lighter. The Wisconsin transplant blames the phenomenon on nearby gas drilling in [...]

Free speech case springs from fracking disputeFOIFT2014-09-05T19:44:22-05:00

Texas Supreme Court voids order to identify blogger

FOIFT2014-09-04T13:21:18-05:00

By Chuck Lindell Austin American-Statesman Originally published Aug. 29, 2014 An Ohio company, seeking to sue a sharply critical blogger who wrote under a pseudonym, cannot use the Texas courts to discover the online author’s identity, a divided Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. The 5-4 decision voided a Harris County district judge’s ruling that ordered Google Inc., which operated the blog’s online home, to disclose the blogger’s name and address so the company would know who to sue for defamation and business disparagement. To order such pre-lawsuit disclosures, however, a Texas court must first establish that the person targeted for a [...]

Texas Supreme Court voids order to identify bloggerFOIFT2014-09-04T13:21:18-05:00

Court ruling gets audit a step closer to becoming public

FOIFT2014-04-29T13:27:07-05:00

By Stevie Poole A-J Media Originally published April 28, 2014 A story more than a decade in the making is a step closer to being told. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear a case HealthSmart Holdings Inc. initiated, hoping to keep an audit of Lubbock’s former insurance administrator private. “If they did decline to hear it and if it has been determined that the audit needs to be released, I’m going to be happy,” said Mayor Glen Robertson, who had not yet been briefed on the court’s decision on Monday. The audit was part of a city controversy [...]

Court ruling gets audit a step closer to becoming publicFOIFT2014-04-29T13:27:07-05:00

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