Here’s how federal courts help determine the fate of controversial issues, such as immigration laws, in Texas and beyond.

Ruben Gutierrez wants to be able to sue prosecutors to compel them to test evidence that he says will prove he did not kill a Brownsville woman in 1998.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had sued the Biden administration after Border Patrol agents had cut the razor wire.

U.S. District Judge Janis Jack, the state’s de facto foster care czar, has been overseeing the case since 2011.

Texas Health and Human Services could face $100,000-per-day fines for violating a judge's orders. The state wants the judge off the case.

After Texas deployed the barrier, a panel ordered it removed. The full appeals court says it can stay while a lower court hears a case on the merits.

Texas dropped its lawsuit after federal health officials said they wouldn’t enforce a confidentiality regulation for minors.

A federal judge has taken the Texas’ foster care system to task for 13 years. Reforms have been made. Now armed with private legal fire power, the state wants the judge off the case.

The 5th Circuit expressed skepticism about arguments from both sides in considering whether a coalition of Black and Latino voters should be granted the same protections as a single racial group under the Voting Rights Act.

University President Walter Wendler canceled a drag performance last year, claiming such shows “denigrate and demean women.”

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments about whether to allow back into effect a law allowing state and local authorities to deport migrants.

Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed Senate Bill 4 to go into effect, a federal appeals court let an earlier injunction stand. SB 4 lets Texas police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border.

A three-judge panel in New Orleans ruled that a Texas law requiring minors to obtain parental consent to obtain birth control does not conflict with the goals of the federally-funded Title X program, which has given teens birth control confidentially.

Faith leaders and jurors from the original trial launched a public campaign to reconsider recanted testimony in Cantu’s case. Texas courts declined.

Recent state and local legal maneuvers signal that Texas’ conservative movement could be wading into a complicated Constitutional morass the country hasn’t dealt with since before the Civil War.

Plaintiffs claimed that the 2023 law, which required book vendors to rate the explicitness of sexual references in materials sold to schools, was unconstitutionally broad.

The Biden administration reminded hospitals of their obligation to perform life-saving abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Texas sued, arguing it was an overstep that mandated abortions.

House Bill 900 seeks to rid school libraries of inappropriate books by requiring book vendors to rate materials. A legal challenge says the law is too vague and broad.

Last year, Judge Matthew Kacmsaryk closed off one of the only avenues for Texas teens to get confidential contraception. The 5th Circuit will hear arguments on the controversial case Monday.

A federal appeals court has ruled that drug users shouldn’t automatically be banned from having guns, marking the latest sign of upheaval in the nation’s firearm legal landscape and raising questions about a law cited in the case against Hunter Biden.

Barraging the Obama administration with lawsuits, the Texas attorney general’s office wasn’t just trying to block policies. It was injecting disruptive, overtly Christian legal philosophies into the mainstream, and grooming a generation of conservative legal warriors.

A federal judiciary full of ideological allies is helping Texas block Democratic priorities and advance right-wing legal doctrines. But the bigger prize is conservative control of the rule of law itself.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a federal judge’s previous injunction that barred the college from charging out-of-state American citizens more than undocumented immigrants living in the state.

A federal appeals court has dealt a legal setback to the Biden administration on guns in a lawsuit challenging tighter regulations on stabilizing braces, an accessory used in several mass shootings.

The legal challenge to mifepristone now returns to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Both of Texas’ Republican senators voiced support for Irma Carrillo Ramirez’s nomination to the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Priscilla Villarreal was arrested over her Facebook postings. In a rare proceeding, the entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will weigh whether she can sue, a case that could have major ramifications for citizen journalists like her -- and professional ones.

An outspoken Christian conservative attorney from Alabama wants a federal appeals court to revive a Louisiana pastor's damage claims against state officials over long-expired COVID-19 restrictions.

A federal court has again rejected a Louisiana pastor's lawsuit over Gov. John Bel Edwards' past COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

Senate Bill 8 barred abortions as early as six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant. It is the strictest abortion ban in the nation.

Senate Bill 8 is poised to officially become law on Wednesday.

The Biden administration says it will continue its legal fight against the revival of a Trump-era policy that requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases are pending.

The ruling is yet another blow to reproductive rights advocates after Texas passed a law this year that goes into effect Sept. 1 banning abortions as early as six weeks. That law is also currently being challenged in court.