Monthly Newsletter

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January 2025

Notice and Announcements

Riley Fletcher Basic Municipal Law Seminar

TCAA Law Students Conference Scholarships

SAVE THE DATE – 2024 TCAA Summer Conference

TMCEC’s 2024 Prosecutor Seminar

The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center’s 2024 Prosecutor Seminar will take place on February 21-23, 2024 at the Holiday Inn Town Lake in Austin. Click here for more information and to register.

TCAA Online Membership Directory

Looking to find the contact information for a fellow TCAA member? You can find it using the TCAA membership directory, available here.

IMLA Membership

Membership with IMLA doesn’t just mean discounts to their events. It’s much more than that. Click here to view a quick video about IMLA membership.

Continuing Legal Education

2023 Fall Conference, 2023 Summer Conference, and Paralegal Program Webinars

These TCAA online seminars are FREE, allowing TCAA members who are city attorneys, assistant city attorneys, or attorneys who regularly practice municipal law to view the videos from the conferences in a single–session format. Viewing a session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. Please visit https://vimeo.com/tcaawebinars/collections.


TCAA/TML Legal Defense Program: Amicus Briefs and Comments Filed

TCAA, in conjunction with the Texas Municipal League, files amicus briefs and comments in support of cities on many issues. To keep up to date on the status of these issues, go to: https://www.tml.org/DocumentCenter/View/2553/AmicusBriefUpdate


Recent Federal Fifth Circuit Cases of Interest to Cities

Note: Included cases are from December 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023.

Due Process: Wilson v. Midland Cnty., Tex., No. 22-50998, 2023 WL 8642226 (5th Cir. Dec. 14, 2023). In 2001, Erma Wilson was convicted of cocaine possession in Midland County, Texas, after police officers reported finding crack cocaine in her vicinity. She received an eight-year suspended sentence, and her conviction was affirmed on appeal. Decades later, in 2019, it was revealed that Weldon Petty, a long-time assistant district attorney in Midland County, concurrently served as a law clerk for Midland County judges while prosecuting cases in their courts, including over 300 where he had been lead prosecutor. Although Wilson’s case was not directly handled by Petty, she claimed his conflict of interest violated her due process rights and filed § 1983 claims. Her cases were dismissed by the trial court, and Wilson appealed.

Wilson’s appeal faced the challenge of the “favorable termination” rule established in Heck v. Humphrey, necessitating a conviction reversal or sentence invalidation before seeking § 1983 damages. As Wilson’s sentence was already served, habeas relief was not an option. A split among the circuits exists, with some effectively waiving the favorable termination rule when compliance would prove impossible as it would in this case. The Fifth Circuit, however, adheres strictly to this rule even when habeas relief is unattainable, and consequently upheld the dismissal of Wilson’s claims.


Recent Texas Cases of Interest to Cities