On March, 23, 2005, the British Petroleum refinery in Texas City exploded, killing 15 contract workers and injuring hundreds of others. It was so bad that courthouse-closer Joe Nixon that very day pulled down his bill that would have granted immunity to BP and others like them.
Despite the fact that the Legislature had several times in the past refused to grant such immunity to premise owners, the Texas Supreme Court in 2007 (re-affirmed in April) wrote its own law, assuming an activist role as a kind of black-robed legislature. The case was called Entergy v. Summers. Beneath a lot of rather obscure legal language, the issue is simple: Can big business twist the state's workers compensation laws to avoid accountability for killing and maiming workers.
People that care about accountability and the integrity of the courts and the state constitution filed HB 1657 to make big corporations like British Petroleum accountable. Because when no one is accountable, no one is safe.
Now here comes the Texas Civil Justice League and their allies simply lying to legislators about HB 1657. In handouts, they say the bill hurts homeowners and local governments. Huh? It's got nothing to do with homeowners and local governments. The TCJL is just lying.
We're going to have to rewrite the part in civics textbooks about how a bill becomes law. If HB 1657 fails, this is how textbook authors will put it: Step 1: Big Business buys Texas Supreme Court; Step 2: Court writes new legislation, destroying constitutional balance of power; 3) Legislature asked to save state constitution, protect accountability; 4) British Petroleum sympathizers lie about it; 5) End of Accountabiliy.
