{"id":181880,"date":"2026-02-26T21:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:48:10","slug":"what-is-the-new-15th-court-of-appeals-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181880\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the new 15th Court of Appeals in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas voters will see a new statewide court on their ballot in 2026 \u2014 throwing even some of the closest political watchers for a loop.<\/p>\n

The 15th Court of Appeals was created during the 2023 legislative session to hear challenges to cases with\u00a0\u201cstatewide significance<\/a>,\u201d including those brought by and against state officials and state agencies, as well as cases challenging state statutes.<\/p>\n

Such cases previously moved through regional appellate courts<\/a>, including the San Antonio-based Fourth Court of Appeals<\/a>, where judges are elected by the voters in a multi-county region.<\/p>\n

But when Texas GOP leaders created a new business court<\/a> to hear high-dollar corporate disputes \u2014 a concept that\u2019s been trending among states competing for the most business-friendly reputations \u2014 they also created<\/a> the new 15th Court of Appeals to hear challenges to its rulings. <\/p>\n

While the 15th Court of Appeals<\/a>\u00a0has received far less attention than the new business court, experts on both sides of the aisle say it has perhaps much greater potential to become a political lightning rod.<\/p>\n

The court hears appeals to many kinds of cases with statewide interest, beyond just the business court. That includes cases involving state leaders and state agencies, for example, ousted Alamo CEO Kate Rogers\u2019 lawsuit naming<\/a> Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, is the type of case that could go there.<\/p>\n

The City of San Antonio\u2019s challenge to the so-called \u201cDeath Star\u201d law<\/a> is another example of the type of case it could take, though the city\u2019s appeal<\/a> predated the court\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 15th Court of Appeals was basically created by the governor\u2019s office \u2026 and it involves litigation involving the state,\u201d said Dallas County Commissioner Andy Sommerman, a Democratic attorney who challenged the new court\u2019s authority<\/a>\u00a0and lost<\/a>. \u201cSo if you are suing Gov. [Greg] Abbott in his official capacity, you\u2019ll be going through the 15th Court of Appeals, with the judges he appointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott appointed the court\u2019s three inaugural justices<\/a>, who will be elected on a statewide basis starting this year. Chief Justice Scott Brister, Justice Scott Field (Place 2) and Justice April Farris (Place 2) are all running to hold their current seats in 2026, and are unopposed in the Republican primary. <\/p>\n

They each drew Democratic challengers who are also unopposed in the primary, though the races are still appearing for the first time on both parties\u2019 March 3 ballots. <\/p>\n

Because the positions are elected statewide \u2014 in a state that hasn\u2019t gone blue in more than three decades \u2014 critics have called it a power grab by GOP leaders. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems very clear that the Republican legislature did not like the results of Democrats who\u2019ve been elected to the courts of appeals, so they decided to change the playing field,\u201d Sommerman said in the interview last year.<\/p>\n

As for the new business court, its judges aren\u2019t on the ballot because the legislature gave the governor the power to appoint them<\/a>. It\u2019s a single statewide court, but it has branches in all of the state\u2019s major metro areas, including San Antonio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read about all of the judicial candidates on the March 3 primary ballot in the San Antonio Report\u2019s comprehensive judicial voter guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 15th Court of Appeals candidates<\/p>\n

Three Republicans appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott are running to hold their positions in November: Chief Justice Scott Brister<\/a>, Scott Field<\/a> (Place 2) and April Farris<\/a> (Place 3). They are unopposed in the primary. <\/p>\n

Three Democrats are running to challenge them in November, and are also unopposed in the primary.<\/p>\n

Republican candidates for 15th Court of Appeals<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Scott Brister <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tScott Brister has a law degree from Harvard Law School and previously served on the Texas Supreme Court. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Scott Field <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tScott Field was a state district court judge in Williamson County before Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to the 15th Court of Appeals. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t April Farris <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tApril Farris served on the 1st Court of Appeals in Houston before Gov. Greg Abbott appointed her to the 15th Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

Democrats running for Texas\u2019 15th Court of Appeals <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Jerry Zimmerer <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tJerry Zimmerer previously served on the 14th Court of Appeals and spent 12 years working for AT&T Mobility.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Tom Baker <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tTom Baker is a is a U.S. Navy veteran who previously served on the 5th Court of Appeals in Austin.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Marc Meyer <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tMarc Meyer is an attorney, a retired Houston firefighter and a registered nurse who lives in Montgomery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas voters will see a new statewide court on their ballot in 2026 \u2014 throwing even some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72864,8519,815,82,84,83,3028,6251],"class_list":["post-181880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-15th-court-of-appeals","tag-2026-election","tag-courts","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}