The latest courts news from The Texas Tribune.
A varsity swimmer was found "responsible" for sexually assaulting a fellow student. But after a brief suspension and one semester of academic probation, he can rejoin the team. Full Story
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The advocates are attempting to undo Texas abortion-related laws going back to 1999. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Austin. Full Story
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The high court's ruling on a Minnesota state law is likely to reverberate in Texas, which has a similar law on the books. Neither state allows voters to wear political garments or accessories in their polling places. Full Story
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“The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes — such as domestic violence or gang violence ... cannot itself establish an asylum claim,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled Monday. Full Story
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The U.S. Justice Department said late Friday it agrees the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program should be terminated. That court filing came after Texas and six other states filed a lawsuit last month to end the 2012 program. Full Story
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The lawsuit filed against the Santa Fe shooting suspect's parents aims to hold gun owners responsible for the way they store their firearms around their troubled children. Experts say it fits into a nationwide pattern of gun liability cases that aspire to keep gun owners and manufacturers accountable through fear of high-cost lawsuits. Full Story
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Justices made the decision months after the teenager, who was in federal custody in Brownsville, terminated her pregnancy. Federal officials argued they didn't have time to appeal a lower court's ruling that cleared the way for the procedure. Full Story
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The move from the Texas Supreme Court comes more than a year after an Austin-based appeals court said the agency must reveal a 2014 supplier of lethal injection drugs. Full Story
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They can see the country they once served from a park in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. But a number of men who once wore a military uniform are barred from coming back after being deported to their native country. Full Story
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A coalition of Texas-based attorneys filed an emergency request to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to order the United States to end the practice of family separation at the border. Full Story
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In El Paso, attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and representatives from the Border Network for Human Rights said a lawsuit that seeks to end family separations at the border could hinge, in part, on the case of a woman detained in 2017. Full Story
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Friday's ruling doesn't directly address regulations implemented by some Texas cities restricting homeowners' use of services like Airbnb. But it bolsters the case against the City of Austin's short-term rental ordinance in several major ways, lawyers said. Full Story
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Olga Zuniga, who worked as a secretary on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for 14 years, claims she was fired by her Republican boss for her social media posts favoring Democrats. Full Story
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After a decade of seeking asylum, a Mexican reporter and his son have been granted a new asylum hearing. The pair has been detained in Texas since last December. Full Story
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A former director at the university's law school is accused of fraud in a case potentially involving millions of dollars. Full Story
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Following a ruling last month that Texas was violating a law designed to ease the voter registration process, a federal judge ordered the state to submit a plan to fix it. Texas' response offered few specifics. Full Story
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The administrative law judges who oversee disputes involving state agencies typically don't attract much attention, but the forced departure of a judge has critics questioning whether the agency's independence is at risk — and calling on the governor to replace her. Full Story
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A Texas death row inmate was executed Wednesday — his fourth execution date in a year. Though advocates and his attorneys insisted on Juan Castillo's innocence, he lost all his fights in court and was put to death for a 2003 San Antonio murder. Full Story
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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund can represent a group of young undocumented immigrants in opposing a lawsuit aimed at ending an Obama-era immigration program shielding people like them from deportation. Full Story
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The Texas Attorney General's Office says Purdue Pharma fueled "the nation's opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing prescription painkillers," including OxyContin. Full Story
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