Last week, I noted that the absence of an order list on Good Friday created a very long gap between the Court’s conference and its next order list. (( Since that conference ended, the Court has issued at least one special order each day other than Good Friday (Wed Thu Mon Tue Wed Thu). ))

Today, the Court showed it has put that extra time to good work — issuing nineteen merits opinions with this order list. (( There was a twentieth opinion, a per curiam in which the Court explained its dismissal of County of Dallas v. Sempe as having been improvidently granted. )) It looks like 9 per curiams and 10 signed opinions. Of the 10 signed majority opinions, Justice Brister wrote three, Justice O’Neill wrote two, and Justices Hecht, Wainwright, Green, Medina, and the Chief Justice each wrote one.

I’m sorry to disappoint any of you who like to time how quickly I can analyze the new opinions. I’m out of town today attending to a family matter, but I’ll start posting some this weekend.

The Court set an argument date for the certified-question case Financial Industries Corp. v. XL Specialty Insurance Co., No. 07-1059 [described here]. It will be argued April 1st — the first day of the next sitting. That argument slot came open because the Court also moved In re Caballero, a disciplinary appeal, from April 1st to April 2nd [described here].

In addition to that shuffling, the Court also granted two new cases for review —

• Tanner v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co., No. 07-0760, and
• In re Labatt Food Service, L.P., No. 07-0419.

The Court has not yet set the date of those arguments.