Texas is opening a fossil fuel-backed business court stacked with judges who’ve represented oil and gas companies.
By Katya Schwenk, The Lever
On Sept. 1, Texas is slated to open its new business courts, a brand-new legal system backed by Big Oil — and several of the court’s main judges have in the past represented fossil fuel companies as lawyers, The Lever has found.
The judges were hand-picked over the last two months by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a major recipient of oil industry cash — and many can be quickly replaced if they hand down decisions he opposes, a judicial design that he championed.

The courts consist of 11 regional business courts and a new statewide court of appeals to hear appellate litigation, which are expected to have immediate impacts on environmental cases in the state. As Public Health Watch, an independent investigative news organization, reported last month, a suite of cases involving state environmental authorities will now be transferred from a generally liberal appeals court to the state’s new Fifteenth Court of Appeals, created to oversee the business courts.
There, these cases will be decided by a panel of conservative judges historically friendly to industry — particularly oil and gas interests, a powerful force in Texas.
Recent Posts
These Billionaires Have Already Spent $19 Million In A Bid To Defeat Mamdani
August 31, 2025
Take Action Now Michael Bloomberg and anti-DEI pundit Bill Ackman are just two of the many billionaires showering cash on Cuomo.By Mike Ludwig,…
Does The House Have The Grit To ‘Block The Bombs’ To Israel?
August 30, 2025
Take Action Now Lawmakers returning from recess have a chance to do what their constituents are telling them to — stop US complicity in Gaza……
The Moral And Strategic Idiocy Of The DNC
August 29, 2025
Take Action Now At its meeting this week, the DNC opposed a ban on U.S. provision of offensive weapons to Israel.By Harold Meyerson, The American…
From Guernica to Gaza, Mass Killers Have Been Above It All
August 28, 2025
Take Action Now The Detached Cruelty of Air PowerBy Norman Solomon, Tom Dispatch Killing from the sky has long offered the sort of detachment that…