Under Texas law, that is in every sense a decision on the merits of the appeal.
Texas law will automatically reduce the verdict to $26.1 million.
The Texas law allowed banks to have branches only within their home county.
But no such mechanisms are available under current Texas law.
None of the three men were even subject to the death penalty under Texas law.
Therefore, he wrote, defenders of the Texas law were wrong to claim that history was on their side.
So far, the Texas law has had no obvious effect.
At the time, Texas law did not provide for a subsequent appeal to a higher state court.
"This is a new matter to Texas law," he said.
But in their minds, and under Texas law, it was a wedding.