Texas Supreme Court Rules Newly Established Appeals Court Constitutional

Texas Supreme Court justices arrive to hear litigators make their arguments at the Texas Supreme Court in Austin on Nov. 28, 2023. Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state Legislature didn’t exceed its constitutional authority when creating the 15th Court of Appeals in 2023.

The appeals court, which is set to hear cases beginning on Sept. 1, will be located in Austin, Texas, and will have statewide jurisdiction over business court and civil cases in which any state department is a party.

The appeals court will not hear criminal cases.

Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown challenged the constitutionality of the court in a writ of injunction to the Texas Supreme Court when her case against Travis County was delayed after being transferred to the new appeals court.

Brown and Dallas County sought to keep the case in the Third Court of Appeals.

Dallas County had sued the Texas Health and Human Service Commission (HHSC) seeking a court order for the health commission to admit 300 inmates deemed incapable of standing trial—what the court calls “forensic commitments”—into its facility or for the HHSC to compensate the county for housing the inmates.

The HHSC said it couldn’t take the forensic commitments because it didn’t have beds.

“Today, forensic commitments account for nearly 70% of the state hospital population,” the HHSC argued in its appellant brief. “The average length of hospital stay has also increased since 2019. Forensic commitments generally spend more time in the state hospital.”

The HHSC said the COVID pandemic only exacerbated the issue; however, the health commission has made steady progress toward “reducing the forensic commitment waitlist,” it said.

Because the case involves state officials, it was transferred to the new appellate court.

This transfer, however, will prolong Dallas County’s housing of these inmates, according to the county.

Among its arguments in the writ, the legal team for the county argued that the Legislature used language that strayed from the intent of the state constitution and exceeded the jurisdictional authority of the appeals court from geographical to statewide.

In addition, the legal team for the county argued that the process by which the new justices will be selected for the 15th Appeals Court is unconstitutional, because they will be appointed in September 2024, but they won’t be elected until November 2026.

The Texas Supreme Court found that the state constitution authorizes the Legislature to create courts, including ones that aren’t geographically limited, such as the 14 currently established.

“We hold that S.B. 1045 is constitutional with respect to the challenges that Dallas County raises,” said Justice Evan Young in his opinion. “We therefore deny relief, which means that the appeal must be transferred as scheduled.”