Court Opinion

ID: 9646938
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:17:14.175926+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:43.910387
License: Public Domain

SAM D. JOHNSON, Justice,
dissenting.
This dissent is respectfully submitted.
This writer has no disagreement with the discussion of inherent and implied powers of this court. Further, this writer has no disagreement with a more encompassing view of the jurisdiction of this court, circumscribed only by the Constitution and enabling statutes of this state.
This writer does not believe, however, that this is an appropriate case in which to exercise those powers so as to expand the jurisdiction of this court beyond the limits of the Texas Constitution and statutes. This court has historically operated under a limited jurisdiction, restricted by the Texas Constitution and statutes. See Hart, The Appellate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Texas, 29 Tex.L.Rev. 285 (1951), and Moorhead, Limitations Upon the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in Appellate Procedure in Texas, at 21-1 (1964).
Nevertheless, the majority opinion of this court now expands the jurisdiction of this court to include decisions by the courts of civil appeals that conflict with a “decision of the Supreme Court of the United States” or “the supreme law of the land.” The ratio decidendi of the majority opinion is the Supremacy Clause and a conflict with “the supreme law of the land.” This necessarily includes conflicts with federal statutes and the federal Constitution, as well as any United States Supreme Court decision.
The avenues to the federal courts have always been open to those not satisfied with the answers they received in the state courts. Many have met with success.1 The majority’s writing ignores the availability of a historically proven remedy.
This writer would dismiss the application for want of jurisdiction.

. Particular attention is drawn to two cases in which the aggrieved parties reached the United States Supreme Court after this court had dismissed their applications for want of jurisdiction, which is the precise situation facing the petitioner in this case. Adam v. Saenger, 303 U.S. 59, 58 S.Ct. 28, 82 L.Ed. 515 (1937), reh. denied, 303 U.S. 666, 58 S.Ct. 640, 82 L.Ed. 1123 (1938); Sullivan v. Texas, 207 U.S. 416, 28 S.Ct. 215, 52 L.Ed. 274 (1908). See also Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514, 88 S.Ct. 2145, 20 L.Ed.2d 1254 (1968); Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 85 S.Ct. 506, 13 L.Ed.2d 431 (1965); Michigan-Wisconsin P. L. Co. v. Calvert, 347 U.S. 157, 74 S.Ct. 396, 98 L.Ed. 583 (1954); Tucker v. Texas, 326 U.S. 517, 66 S.Ct. 274, 90 L.Ed. 274 (1946); Largent v. Texas, 318 U.S. 418, 63 S.Ct. 667, 87 L.Ed. 873 (1943); Lone Star Gas Co. v. Texas, 304 U.S. 224, 58 S.Ct. 883, 82 L.Ed. 1304 (1938); Grovey v. Townsend, 295 U.S. 45, 55 S.Ct. 622, 79 L.Ed. 1292 (1935); Bacon v. State of Texas, 163 U.S. 207, 16 S.Ct. 1023, 41 L.Ed. 132 (1896); Annot., 7 L.Ed.2d 1025.