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?