Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of December 10, 2018.

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Estes v. State, No. 02-14-00460-CR (Dec. 13, 2018) (Gabriel, J., joined by Sudderth, C.J., and Bassel, J.) (op. on remand).

Held:  Penal code section 22.011(f) does not significantly interfere with the fundamental right to marry; thus, Appellant’s equal-protection and substantive-due-process arguments are not subject to strict scrutiny but are reviewed under a rational-relationship test.  The statute is rationally related to a legitimate state interest—imposing higher punishments on sex offenders who trade on the apparent trustworthiness that marriage provides—and as applied to Appellant, does not offend equal protection or substantive due process.