Here’s what is on the Court’s calendar for this week:

• Conference (Tuesday): This is the Court’s first private conference in more than a month. I don’t know if they will be finalizing any opinions, but I would not be surprised to see a flurry of petition denials, briefing requests, and perhaps a few new grants of review this Friday.

• New Law Clerk Orientation (Wednesday/Thursday)

• Weekly Orders List (Friday)

“Perry This, Perry That”

There was a little news from out-of-state this weekend that might affect coverage of the Texas Supreme Court in coming months.

Beating that rush, the Texas Tribune ran an article last Friday about Governor Perry’s role in appointing a number of the Justices: “Supreme Court is Elected, but Bears Perry’s Stamp”. By my count, six of the current Justices were at one point appointed by Perry before winning election. One of those, Justice Lehrmann, had already won her party primary before being appointed to serve the few months before election day.

The article has some thoughts about Perry’s philosophy of appointing judges.

Justices 1836-1986

I saw an announcement that the UT Law Library had redesigned the website for its “Justices of Texas 1836-1986” project. It’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of Texas judicial history, even if it’s frozen at the sesquicentennial instead of our current dodransbicentennial. (( Yes, I looked that up. )) Don’t miss the cartoon drawings of early Justices, including Texas’s first chief justice.

OCA review of legislation affecting the courts

The Texas Office of Court Administration has released its report on the new legislation affecting the court system.

“The Role of International Law in Texas Jurisprudence”

A post by Carl Reynolds on his CourTex blog points out a paper by Martha Lackritz on the limited ways international law has been used in Texas cases. (( If you’re counting, this is the second time in a week that I’ve linked to something written by Martha. ))

2011 voting stats, coming soon

I’m giving a little thought to which stats I should prepare once the Texas Supreme Court finishes up its fiscal year at the end of August. Do you have any favorite statistics or vote breakdowns you’ve seen for other courts? Do you prefer a web-based stat pack (as I’ve done in the past) or a PDF that might be easier to share or to print?

Because the Court is slowing down for the summer, I’m taking a break from my regular “weekly preview” posts. There just isn’t much on the calendar until August. For the rest of June, the Court has conferences each Monday. Then, for the whole month of July and the first half of August, the Court has no scheduled conferences. (No conferences does not mean no opinions, but it does mean there’s very little fodder for a “preview” post.)

In mid-August, the Court will hold a long conference as its new clerks start their year.

By around the same time, the Court should also announce its fall argument calendar.

The Court has a private conference scheduled today, its first since May 12th.

This starts a new pattern for the month of June, with a conference scheduled each Monday — a chance to finish up any lingering work for the term. After that, no conferences are scheduled until mid-August, when the new law clerks arrive for the fall.

Articles from the Past Week

• The big news of the week was the Governor’s veto of S.B. 2038, which passed the Legislature overwhelmingly and would have immediately changed some of the ground rules for statutory construction.

  Before that veto, the press had focused on the other Entergy-inspired bill, which would have changed the substantive workers compensation law. That Entergy bill was “apparently dead” in the closing days of the Legislative session.

• Adam Liptak wrote about studies suggesting that results of U.S. Supreme Court cases can be predicted by comparing the number of questions each side is asked by the Justices at oral argument.

• The Court ended its week with a quiet order list, with which no petitions were granted and no opinions issued.

The Court is closed today for the Memorial Day holiday. There are no other events scheduled before this Friday’s regular order list.

Articles from the Past Week

• On Friday, the Court issued opinions in four cases. One of them was a fairly significant case about shareholder derivative suits in Texas, which although rare, are of great concern to the corporations formed here. I summarized this case in my post about the order list

• The other three cases all related to the Texas Tort Claims Act. In all three, the Court held that the state was immune from suit. Summaries of those cases are also in my post about the order list.

The Court’s calendar shows an event that may take several Justices’ time this week (an American Law Institute (ALI) meeting Monday through Wednesday). Because next Monday is Memorial Day, the Texas Supreme Court’s next scheduled private conference to consider petitions is June 1st.

Articles from the past week

• On Friday, the Court issued opinions in three cases. My summaries of all three cases are in that post. (My post going into a little more detail about the Crites case is still on the back burner.)

• The Court also formally accepted the Fifth Circuit’s certified question in the Severance case, mentioned in this earlier post.

This morning is the swearing-in ceremony for Texas lawyers who passed the February 2009 bar exam. Also today, the Texas Supreme Court begins a two-day private conference. Any petitions granted or other case dispositions should be reflected on Friday’s regular order list.

Articles from the Past Week

• Last week, there were several newspaper mentions of SB 780, which would require the Texas Supreme Court to disclose its internal votes on petitions. I noted one of them here.

• In the same blog post, I reacted to a suggestion made on Texas Appellate Law Blog about making Texas’s cross-appeals rules more like the federal model.

• And, on Friday, the Court issued a quiet order list. No opinions were released, and no petitions were granted.

The Supreme Court of Texas has a two-day private conference beginning today. We should know any petitions granted or cases disposed in this Friday’s regular order list.

Articles from the Past Week

• The Fifth Circuit has certified a new question about the constitutionality of the Texas Open Beaches Act. This has gotten some attention for the colorful dissent from the panel decision.

• In last week’s relatively quiet order list, the Court did not grant any petitions or issue any opinions.

The Court’s public calendar is open this week until the regular Friday order list.

Articles from the Past Week

• The Court decided four cases in last week’s order list, including the Tanner high-speed car-chase case. The Court also granted review in State of Texas v. $281,400 in US Currency, the case in which the Court made a formal CVSG request last fall.

• The Rules Advisory Committee took up proposed rules to clarify the post-trial motion process and also provide for electronic filing in Texas state appellate courts.

• Other bills continue to wind their way through the Legislature, including bills related to Entergy and the case about whether public employees’ exact dates of birth should be confidential.