Texas Cases Before the Supreme Court: Friday’s Show (December 18, 2015)

The U.S. Supreme Court last week (Dec. 8 and 9, 2015) heard oral arguments in two cases that stem from Texas. Evenwel v. Abbott deals with how legislative districts are drawn and could have a profound effect on future elections. Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin deals with the use of affirmative action in admissions decisions at universities.

To help us understand the possible implications of these cases, and why so many from Texas seem to end up before the nation's highest court, Michael Hagerty talks with Charles “Rocky” Rhodes from South Texas College of Law on this edition of Houston Matters.

Also this hour: From vandals trashing Adopt-A-Highway signs recognizing an atheist group, to two Texas courts being named “Judicial Hellholes,” to a Houston man stopping highway traffic to propose: we discuss The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of this week’s news.

Our panel of non-experts this week: Wayne Ashley, author of the Texas Leftist blog; Russ Capper, founder and co-host of The BusinessMakers Show and The Energy Makers Show; and Houston Chronicle writer Kyrie O’Connor.

NOTE: Today’s program will be abbreviated so that we can bring you NPR coverage of President Obama’s news conference starting at 12:40pm CT.