It’s time to amend the Texas Constitution to eliminate a harmful limit on the Texas Supreme Court’s appellate power.

The Texas Constitution limits the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction in an unusual way. It prohibits the Supreme Court’s factual sufficiency review of a judgment already reviewed by a court of appeals. In general, this means the Court cannot engage in a complete analysis of the evidence on all sides of a fact-finder’s conclusions. This limit is implied by the Constitution’s creation of the courts of appeals.  Under Article 5, section 6, “the decision of said courts [of appeals] shall be conclusive on all questions of fact brought before them on appeal or error.” The Supreme Court would act beyond its jurisdiction if it reversed a court of appeals on the grounds of factual insufficiency. But the Supreme Court can reverse on grounds of legal sufficiency, which in general involves errors of substantive law or a complete or nearly complete absence of evidence for an essential element of a prevailing claim or defense.