Court Opinion

ID: 9645244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:18:14.175099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:15:13.311842
License: Public Domain

SPECTOR, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I agree with the substance of the concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice Dog-gett. I write separately, however, to explain why I would uphold the statutory requirement that those who run afoul of environmental laws make timely payment of administrative penalties before seeking judicial review.
In two other causes decided today, this court has considered open courts challenges to the statutory requirement that state mineral lessees prepay administrative deficiency assessments before seeking judicial review of those assessments. State v. Flag-Redfern Oil Co. and State v. Rutherford Oil Corp., 852 S.W.2d 480 (Tex.1993) (considering Tex.Nat.Res.Code § 52.137). Our analysis in those cases focused on the *480public interest at stake: the State’s only interest in the prepayment requirement, we noted, was its financial interest in immediate access to disputed royalty payments. Id. at 485. Thus, we concluded that the prepayment requirement of section 52.137 was no different, in constitutional terms, from the litigation tax disapproved in LeCroy v. Hanlon, 713 S.W.2d 335, 342 (Tex.1986). Id.
The present case, in contrast, does not involve a litigation tax. The Clean Air Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, and the Water Quality Act embody this state’s commitment to protect the environment; and the prepayment requirements struck down today were intended to give force to that commitment, not to raise revenue. Without the need to prepay administrative penalties, polluters will be left with little if any incentive to timely comply with environmental laws and regulations.
The effects of today’s decision, though, extend far beyond the statutes at issue in this case. By rejecting these prepayment requirements, without regard to the state interest involved, the majority has struck a severe blow to this state’s ability to enforce a broad range of regulations in the public interest. The similar statutory provisions identified in the opinion by Justice Doggett, 852 S.W.2d at 457, cannot be dismissed as minor technicalities; they are carefully-crafted measures that the legislature considered vital to protect the public from recalcitrant lawbreakers. Casting those provisions aside will seriously disrupt the effective operation of our state government.
The Texas Constitution cannot be construed in absolutes. The basic right of access to the courts must be balanced against the need to protect the public’s health and safety. While the restriction at issue in this case may be substantial, I would hold that the public’s interest in clean air and water, combined with the due process afforded to TAB’s members in the administrative process, tips the balance in favor of the prepayment requirement. I therefore dissent.