Texas Supreme Court sides with Abbott after judge halted his order restricting jail release
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order restricting jail release during the coronavirus pandemic. But the justices didn’t address the overarching questions of whether the order is unconstitutional or gubernatorial overreach, instead ruling that the county judges who brought the lawsuit were the wrong ones to challenge the order.
"The question of [the order's] legal effect when weighed against the Constitution and other sources of law is a question for judges to decide when properly asked by parties to do so," the court said in its ruling on the governor's order Thursday.
But the ruling also indicated that if judges were to face prosecution for their individual bail decisions, they could successfully challenge it based on their judicial decision making.