The Honorable Norman Lanford, Relator v. the Fourteenth Court of Appeals, Respondent

Summary

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that it has jurisdiction over the mandamus proceeding because the issue arises from a criminal prosecution, that Texas Government Code §74.053(d) applies only to civil cases, and that the Texas Constitution implicitly authorizes the assignment of former judges to sit in criminal cases. Accordingly, the Court reversed the Fourteenth Court of Appeals' conditional mandamus ordering Judge Lanford to step down and granted Lanford a writ of mandamus, noting that mandamus is an extraordinary remedy and that Lanford has no other adequate legal remedy. The decision was joined by a concurrence and opposed by a dissent.