On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, which was created by the Legislature last session and officially comes online September 1. 

The court—whose inaugural judges were appointed by Gov. Abbott in June and will be accountable to voters statewide in the 2026 elections—has jurisdiction over administrative and constitutional appeals involving the state and state agencies, as well as appeals from the newly created specialized business court.

The legal challenge arose in one such case involving Dallas County, which sued the state over an issue with custody of criminal defendants who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial. 

As intended with the creation of the new court, the state attempted to preemptively move the case to the Fifteenth Court ahead of its launch date, which led Dallas County to file an appeal in the Third Court of Appeals. That appeal was elevated to the Texas Supreme Court.

TLR filed an amicus brief in this case, noting that the Legislature specifically vested the Texas Supreme Court with the jurisdiction to resolve any constitutional questions about the Fifteenth Court, and urging SCOTX to resolve those issues ahead of the September 1 launch to give certainty to its future litigants.

You may recall that the Fifteenth Court is the first new appellate court to be created by the Legislature since the 1980s, despite the state’s skyrocketing population growth and the corresponding growth in caseload. Paired with the new business court, this new appellate court builds on Texas’ preference for specialized courts with expert judges focused on specific areas of the law.

For the Fifteenth Court, that means jurisdiction over constitutional and administrative issues of statewide importance. In creating the Fifteenth Court, the Legislature determined those kinds of issues should be decided by a court with statewide jurisdiction, whose judges are elected by Texas voters statewide. Prior to the creation of the Fifteenth Court, these kinds of cases were decided by regional courts, particularly the Third Court of Appeals in Austin. 

While the Third Court hears appeals from trial courts in a 24-county area, its judges are essentially selected by the voters of Travis County. Additionally, the Third Court is Texas’ most overworked intermediate appellate court. The Texas Supreme Court transfers cases between the 14 intermediate courts of appeals to equalize dockets. In recent years, the Third Court has consistently had the most cases transferred to other courts.

The Supreme Court’s decision marks an important step in bringing online this much-needed, highly specialized venue to help strengthen our state’s legal system.