Courthouse News Service • 24th February 2026

Feds and defense attorneys lay out dueling narratives in North Texas 'antifa' trial

Prosecutors claim members of an "antifa cell" conspired to attack an ICE facility last year, culminating in the shooting of a police officer, but defendants say the event was a peaceful protest gone wrong.FORT WORTH, Texas (CN) — At the start of a highly anticipated trial in Fort Worth, Texas, Tuesday, a federal prosecutor and attorneys for several defendants laid out competing stories about an incident at an ICE facility last year that resulted in a police officer being shot.The prosecution cla...

Courthouse News Service • 19th February 2026

Texas AG sues security camera manufacturer, claiming Chinese ties

Attorney General Ken Paxton claims Lorex failed to disclose to consumers that its products contain components produced by a Chinese company the government has designated as a national security risk.McKINNEY, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing security camera manufacturer Lorex of concealing ties to a Chinese company that the U.S. government has designated as a national security risk.Lorex comprises two firms, Lorex Technology Inc. and Lorex Corporati...

Courthouse News Service • 18th February 2026

Texas AG accuses Children’s Health of providing illegal gender treatment for minors

In addition to violating state law, Attorney General Ken Paxton says the health care system has fraudulently billed state health care programs for the treatments.MCKINNEY, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Children's Health System of Texas, one of the nation's largest pediatric health care providers, on Wednesday, claiming it provides gender-affirming medical treatments for minors in violation of state law.In a petition filed in Collin County District Court, Paxton characterize...

Courthouse News Service • 17th February 2026

Texas AG sues Wi-Fi company over links to China

Attorney General Ken Paxton claims TP-Link, which controls a substantial share of the retail market for Wi-Fi routers in the U.S., has deceived consumers about its devices' security and its ties to China.MCKINNEY, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Wi-Fi giant TP-Link Systems Inc., accusing it of deceiving consumers about its ties to China and misrepresenting its devices' security.In 2024, China-based technology company TP-Link split into two separate...

Courthouse News Service • 12th February 2026

Fifth Circuit finds Texas ban on ballot harvesting constitutional

A three-judge panel ruled a federal judge incorrectly found that the ban, which prohibits paid political canvassing when a mail-in ballot is present, violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague.(CN) — A Fifth Circuit panel on Thursday overturned a federal judge's ruling blocking a Texas law banning paid political canvassing in the presence of a mail ballot.The law was passed as part of Senate Bill 1, an omnibus voting law passed by Texas Republicans in 2021 following unsupported...

Courthouse News Service • 11th February 2026

Texas AG accuses Snapchat of exposing minors to explicit content and addictive features

Attorney General Ken Paxton claims Snapchat is deceptively marketed as safe for minors whilst hosting mature content and containing features that promote compulsive use. He also claims the platform provides insufficient parental controls.MCKINNEY, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Snap Inc., the company that operates Snapchat, claiming it has falsely marketed the platform as safe for minors even though Snapchat hosts explicit content and utilizes ad...

Courthouse News Service • 6th February 2026

Fifth Circuit upholds Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy

A panel of judges ruled 2-1 that the government can lawfully require detention for all noncitizens in removal proceedings who entered the U.S. without being legally admitted.(CN) — A divided Fifth Circuit panel ruled Friday that the Trump administration can lawfully deny bond hearings for many people in deportation proceedings, despite over 300 federal judges having ruled to the contrary.The conservative majority overruled federal judges in two separate cases, bucking nearly 30 years of federal...

Courthouse News Service • 5th February 2026

Families of Boeing crash victims urge Fifth Circuit to overturn dismissal of criminal case

Prosecutors had accused Boeing of deceiving federal regulators about the safety of its 737 Max planes, leading to a pair of deadly crashes, but last year, they reached an agreement to drop the criminal fraud case against the aerospace giant.(CN) — The families of people who died in a pair of Boeing 737 Max plane crashes asked a Fifth Circuit panel Thursday to void an agreement between federal prosecutors and the aerospace company to drop a criminal fraud case, arguing their rights as crime victi...

Courthouse News Service • 4th February 2026

Texas attorney general sues Bexar County over immigration defense fund

(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued one of the state's most populous counties Wednesday over a program that funds legal representation for immigrants in removal proceedings.The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted in December to provide $566,181 to the American Gateways organization as part of the county's Immigration Legal Services fund. Established in 2024, the program gives funding to nonprofits to provide legal representation for immigrants facing deportation. Paxton cites report...

Courthouse News Service • 3rd February 2026

Fifth Circuit splits on Trump’s mandatory detention policy

The Trump administration maintains that, under federal law, all noncitizens who entered the country without being lawfully admitted are subject to mandatory detention during deportation proceedings.(CN) — A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit appeared divided Tuesday on the legality of a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for all noncitizens in deportation proceedings who entered the U.S. without being lawfully admitted.The case centers around the interpretation of two federal...

Courthouse News Service • 2nd February 2026

Starbucks defends union organizer’s firing before Fifth Circuit

The National Labor Relations Board found that the employee was fired in retaliation for his union activism.(CN) — Starbucks told a Fifth Circuit panel Monday that the National Labor Relations Board improperly determined that the coffee giant unlawfully fired an employee in retaliation for his union organizing activity.The NLRB found that Starbucks illegally fired James Schenk, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks store in the Albany, New York, area who in 2021 and 2022 helped lead a campaign to uni...

Courthouse News Service • 27th January 2026

Paxton sues Delaware nurse for sending abortion pills to Texas

Attorney General Ken Paxton previously went after a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, but New York has refused Paxton's bid to enforce the judgment.(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Delaware nurse practitioner Tuesday, accusing her of violating Texas' abortion ban by mailing abortion pills to Texas.Nurse practitioner Debra Lynch operates a Delaware-based practice called Her Safe Harbor through which she provides telehealth abortions. In a January 2...

Courthouse News Service • 22nd January 2026

Fifth Circuit split on Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act to remove Venezuelans

Judges questioned the extent to which courts have the power to second-guess the president's invocation of the 18th-century law.(CN) — In a highly anticipated hearing Thursday, the Fifth Circuit heard arguments on whether President Donald Trump can use a centuries-old statute to remove Venezuelan nationals his administration determines to be gang members.The Alien Enemies Act is an 18th-century law allowing the president to detain or deport noncitizens from enemy nations “whenever there is a decl...

Courthouse News Service • 21st January 2026

Texas asks Fifth Circuit to preserve death row inmate’s murder conviction

(CN) — Texas told the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday that a three-judge panel was wrong in finding that a death row inmate's murder conviction should be vacated because the state failed to disclose evidence drawing a key witness's credibility into question.In the panel's majority opinion, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham laid out the story of Brittany Holberg, "a bright young woman who — after a childhood and adolescence marked by repeated sexual abuse and trauma — f...

Courthouse News Service • 20th January 2026

Texas and Louisiana defend laws requiring Ten Commandments in every public school classroom

A Texas federal judge and a Fifth Circuit panel previously found that the laws are likely unconstitutional.(CN) — Texas and Louisiana defended the constitutionality of state laws requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom at a hearing Tuesday before the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.In two separate cases, groups of parents are challenging the laws on behalf of themselves and their children, arguing the statutes violate their freedom of religion. A federal judg...

Courthouse News Service • 15th January 2026

Pew finds most Democrats think US is losing ground in science

Democrats were also more likely than Republicans to say government investment in science is essential and that science has had a mostly positive effect on society.(CN) — Sixty-five percent of Democrats believe the United States is losing ground in scientific achievement compared to other countries, Pew Research Center said in a report released Thursday, a 28 percentage point increase since the question was last asked in 2023.The report is based on a survey of 5,111 U.S. adults conducted in Octob...

Courthouse News Service • 9th January 2026

Junior high principal seeks qualified immunity from teacher's school prayer lawsuit

The teacher claims the principal forbade her from praying anywhere students might see her, but the principal argues he merely told her she couldn't pray at a student-led prayer event.(CN) — The principal of a Texas junior high asked a Fifth Circuit panel Friday to grant him qualified immunity from a teacher’s lawsuit claiming he violated her First Amendment rights by restricting her ability to pray at school.Lawyers for both sides offered starkly different accounts of the case. Alexa Gould, repr...

Courthouse News Service • 8th January 2026

Widow of police cadet who died after ‘fight for your life’ training seeks to revive lawsuit

Brittney Kennedy claims trainers continued to attack her husband even after he tried to stop the exercise.(CN) — The widow of a police cadet who died during training asked a Fifth Circuit panel Thursday to reverse a federal court’s dismissal of her civil rights lawsuit over her husband’s death.Brittney Kennedy says her husband, Marquis Kennedy, died in September 2022 while training at the Arlington, Texas, police academy after he participated in what was informally known as a “fight for your lif...

Courthouse News Service • 7th January 2026

Dallas anesthesiologist challenges conviction for poisoning IV bags

Dr. Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz argued that one man's emotional testimony about watching his wife die shouldn't have been included at trial, and one judge seemed sympathetic: "How is that not inflaming a jury?"(CN) — A Dallas anesthesiologist asked a Fifth Circuit panel Wednesday to overturn his conviction for poisoning patient IV bags with dangerous drugs, arguing there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction.In the summer of 2022, patients at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas...

Courthouse News Service • 6th January 2026

Teachers union sues Texas Education Agency over investigations into Charlie Kirk posts

The union claims a letter from the state's education commissioner instructing superintendents to report teachers for "inappropriate" social media posts about the conservative activist's death violates the First Amendment.(CN) — A Texas teachers union filed a First Amendment lawsuit Tuesday, challenging a Texas Education Agency policy requiring school districts to report teachers to the agency for investigation for “inappropriate” social media posts regarding the death of conservative activist Ch...

Courthouse News Service • 16th December 2025

Texas AG sues energy utility over Smokehouse Creek Fire

The 2024 wildfire, the largest on record in Texas history, was started by a decayed utility pole collapsing.(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued utility company Xcel Energy Tuesday, claiming its negligence led to the record-breaking Smokehouse Creek Fire, which killed three people and is estimated to have caused over $1 billion in damage.The fire, which burned through over 1 million acres of the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma in early 2024, is the largest recorded wildfire in Texa...

Courthouse News Service • 15th December 2025

Texas AG sues smart TV makers over data privacy

Attorney General Ken Paxton claims smart TV manufacturers, including companies with ties to the Chinese government, have failed to adequately inform users their technology captures what is shown on their screens in real time.(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five major smart TV manufacturers Monday, accusing them of violating users’ data privacy.In complaints filed in several Texas state courts, Paxton claims smart TVs made by Sony, Samsung and LG, as well as China-based Hisense and...

Courthouse News Service • 12th December 2025

First Circuit reverses block on Trump's Planned Parenthood funding cuts

The appeals panel said that a provision of the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that stripped Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood didn't violate the reproductive health care giant's rights.(CN) — A three-judge panel of the First Circuit ruled Friday that Planned Parenthood is unlikely to succeed in its claims that a new federal law denying it Medicaid funds is unconstitutional.The panel overturned a lower court’s order that had temporarily blocked a provision of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful...

Courthouse News Service • 2nd December 2025

Texas officials seek to unblock ban on mail ballot 'harvesting'

As part of SB 1, a controversial voting law passed after Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, Texas has enacted a ban on paid canvassing in the presence of a mail ballot. A federal judge blocked officials from enforcing the ban, finding that it violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague.(CN) — Texas officials asked a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday to reverse a federal judge’s ruling blocking them from enforcing a state law banning paid political canvassi...