Ex Parte Texas

Background

State officials — the Attorney General and the Texas Railroad Commission — asked permission to seek a court order forcing the Texas Supreme Court to conform its judgment to a prior U.S. Supreme Court decision. The dispute grew out of a long-running rate fight with Lone Star Gas Company. After this Court reversed a Texas appeals court and sent the case back for further proceedings, Texas courts disagreed about whether the federal opinion had already decided parts of the gas company’s confiscation claim and whether a full new trial was required under Texas law (Article 6059).

Reasoning

The key question was whether the Texas Supreme Court had misread this Court’s mandate and whether a federal writ should correct that reading. The Texas justices filed a return saying they acted under state law and would have reached the same result on that basis. Accepting that explanation and treating the allocation of state judicial power as a local-law matter, this Court discharged its rule, denied leave to file for mandamus, and declined to override the Texas court’s remand for a new trial.

Real world impact

This is a procedural ruling that leaves the state court’s remand and the ordered new trial in place. The underlying rate and confiscation issues remain open for retrial in Texas courts; this decision does not settle the merits and does not immediately change utility rates.

Dissents or concurrances

Three Justices explicitly concurred in the result, and one Justice agreed to the disposition but did not join the opinion.