While the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court is entering a new era of agreement in its opinions, an internal conflict still lingers among justices over what types of cases the high court should be considering.
In 1987, the court became a discretionary review court, allowing it to review cases it thinks are most important to the overall jurisprudence of the state. A decade later, new appellate rules were written to streamline the petition for review process, encouraging lawyers to argue the most significant legal conflicts in their appeals.
