Weekly Docket
Dive into the world of law with 'Weekly Docket,' hosted by Silberman Law Firm's Phil Silberman. Get the latest on landmark cases, practical law, and a unique perspective on the legal landscape. Join us for a weekly exploration of law like you've never heard it before.
Weekly Docket
SCOTUS Social Media Update, Trump's Immunity, Texas Fireworks Laws, Open Beaches & THC
Join Phil Silberman and Austin Black in Episode 25 of the ‘Weekly Docket’ as they explore the Supreme Court's recent decisions, including sending Texas' social media law back to the lower court and the implications of Trump's immunity ruling. Get answers to legal questions about the Texas Open Beaches Act and the legal landscape of fireworks in Texas. Plus, a deep dive into the skyrocketing THC levels in modern marijuana compared to a few decades ago. Don’t miss out on this episode filled with legal insights, expert advice, and lively discussions!
Welcome to the Silberman Law Firm's Weekly Docket. My name is Phil Silberman, and we're in episode 25. I'm your host and owner of the firm. Today is July 3rd, 2024, and I'm joined by my co host, Austin Black. How are you doing today, Mr. Black?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I am doing alright. I don't know why it keeps getting hotter, but I guess that is just the way it is. I don't think it's gonna get better. August is always the worst, right? It's just gonna keep getting hotter, and then maybe it'll pewter out a bit in October. But, we just don't
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Good.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:a fall. It just goes straight from summer to, two weeks of winter, and then spring.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, that's how it works in Texas. And it's brutally hot. And I was talking to you a little bit before the show where I said, I feel bad. It's commiserating with you about the heat because I've been up in Massachusetts where it's a bit cooler. And, I said, I feel like Ted Cruz where during the freeze apocalypse, he took off to Mexico and just got absolutely lambasted for it. So
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:he just didn't have to look that much like a tourist escaping the freeze, right? Like he couldn't have worn just a suit or something made it look somewhat official. no. he just went full tourist, the shorts and bandy pack and everything. It's not a good look.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:That's a bad look too. But it's part of the reason I never want to be a politician because you're so highly scrutinized when you do stuff like that. Any action you take as a politician, you need to ask yourself, what are the optics here? And certainly a bad look for Mr. Cruz when he did that. But yes, it's a bad look. It is hot now. we are doing our July 4th show. Tomorrow is July 4th, and what is on our docket today, Mr. Black?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:So today, are first going over our legal news section as per usual. I'm going to be talking about the Supreme court, addressing Texas's social media law, where they're attempting to ban minors from using social media or having social media accounts. So they're talking about what the Supreme Court's ruling on that exactly was because news organizations always misconstrue when the Supreme Court rules on something. They like, we'll say that the Supreme Court held this or they held that when they really didn't and they just didn't do anything, kicked it back to a lower court. And that's what happened here. and then we'll be talking about the Supreme Court's decision on Trump's immunity. and specifically how that applies to the pending, cases that he is going on and how that may impact the election. then we'll be moving on to our legal questions section. and first, talking about what happens under the Texas Open Beaches Act. What happens when hurricanes impact beachfront properties? Who holds the liability for that? Can you sue NASA for it? you can't sue NASA for it, but it's an option, right? and then we'll be talking about fireworks because tomorrow people want to shoot them and can you legally shoot them in Texas, which ones are legal, et cetera, et cetera. and then finally our rent and rave section, we will be talking about. A rather high topic, THC. Okay. So levels of THC in Texas, how it's regulated, the sort of introduction of that, then just laws on marijuana as we'll just previously scheduled one substance, going over what that was in the past and what it is now, and giving you some guidance on if you choose to partake in the forbidden plant tomorrow. yes.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:so this is basically a very thematic, July 4th episode, right? Because you've got beaches, and you've got fireworks. And you've got marijuana. and we also have Trump in the Supreme court. So those two don't really fit, but
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:actually did not know that marijuana was associated with the 4th of July. Do you feel that it is?
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I was just thinking, people go to the beach and get high and drunk.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:sure. yeah,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:That was, I don't do that personally, but that was I think that's what happens in places like Galveston.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Are people doing that in Massachusetts?
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:So people smoke weed all the time in Massachusetts. It's just walk up and down. it's I think it's technically legal in the state. So people just you'll just be walking down the street and smell it. But not quite like that in Texas. I do have one correction on our docket though. You mentioned that this Supreme Court case with social media is about the ages of minors. That's actually not correct this one and it's easy to get him confused. Yeah. No, this one is House Bill 20, which is the ban on, content moderation.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Got it. Got it. Got it.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:let's just go ahead and kick it off with our legal news section because this is, that's actually the first piece in legal news is this Texas law. It was House Bill 20, made it illegal for big social media companies, to ban political viewpoints. So basically, if you're out there posting in the public square and social media is the public square, then, platforms like TikTok and YouTube cannot ban, that opinion. And that's what the law said. And as many of our listeners know, and as I've mentioned before, I think when we did this piece, I'm shadow banned on TikTok, I'm banned for, I have a lifetime ban from advertising because a lot of the pieces we do on the podcast are political. and I'm also shadow banned. And what that means is they basically depress my rankings and depress my videos, because it does talk about political content. Like today we're talking about Trump and things like that. So, house bill 20, social media companies are not allowed to do content moderation. That has gone all the way up to the Supreme Court. And the reason this is a much about much to do about nothing is the Supreme Court basically sent it back down to the Fifth Circuit saying the Fifth Circuit needs to do more analysis. Texas has this law. The specifics of the law are if you have over 50 million users, then you're not allowed to censor the content. The idea being you're basically a public forum and we want to encourage first amendment rights. And though the argument by social media companies is that by passing that law, you infringe on the first amendment rights of social media companies to be able to do things like content moderation. So not a lot going on there. Supreme court says, go back, do some more analysis on it. Social media platforms are considering this a win because it basically stalls the enforcement of this Texas law. so the supporters of the law, they argue the law protects free speech and prevents political bias, by powerful tech companies. So the opponent's view, social media, they say infringes on the First Amendment rights of the social media companies themselves. So you have those two forces at work fighting each other. So we're going to wait and see what happens with that one. See what the Fifth Circuit does with it and see how that comes out. Do you have a personal opinion, Austin, on it? Do you think the social media companies ought to be able to do content moderation?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I mean, Content moderation. Yes, I think they should be able to do content moderation. If you're specifically moderating certain viewpoints, then no, I don't think that they should be able to do that. But then, obviously, you get into sort of the analysis of what exactly is, Just a few point, and then what, comes into falls into other categories, right? That can be modified, right? And then what sort of falls onto things that they can moderate. And some people just say, don't moderate anything, just full free speech. I'm not entirely in that boat, but I'm probably closer there than the other side.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, that's a good point. you probably, we make fun of TikTok all the time because you can learn how to do all kinds of illegal things there, learn how to make guns and bombs maybe, hypothetically. I don't know if they're taking those videos down, but that would be an example of something I think most of us can agree on we don't want. Instruction videos on TikTok or these platforms about making bombs. And, but if you point, you and I are gonna talk about Trump and some of these other things, that should be in the public forum. and the lines do begin to gray a bit. So we'll see what happens with that piece. We'll keep everyone updated, on ultimately where that goes from the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court takes it back up. But major news, moving right along. Major news, for. Trump Supreme Court decision on Trump's immunity. Have you been following this case at all, Austin? You know a little bit about it.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I have been following it. Yes. I haven't read through the entire decision. I've read through parts of it, but not the entire thing yet.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Okay.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:there are people that every single time there's a Supreme Court decision, there is so many bad faith, people on Twitter and just in the news media, completely misconstruing what was done and what was said, like saying that this is exactly what Nazi Germany did. Not, not, not, not really.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:President Biden got up there, after the catastrophic debate, right? his first public appearance was commenting on this decision. And he basically said this is an absolute attack on our democracy. And it gives You know, a president carte blanche to not follow the law. of course, that's the Biden perspective. that's the Biden administration spin. but let's start with kind of the,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:don't even believe that. That's just what, the sort of battle drum of the left and the U. S. right now is, to get out the vote, right? So
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I think if you break this, if we were to break this down for our listeners, to its most simple form, the idea that a president cannot commit a crime or be convicted of a crime is ridiculous. So we know that if a president were to commit murder, if a president were to make a public speech calling for treason. Then those are crimes for which the president could be prosecuted. And, of course, you have, the impeachment power, right? Presidents can be impeached. That's another check on the executive branch.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:the issue here is this gray area and it stems from the January 6 riots and what Trump really did and what kind of immunity is afforded to him, based on these acts. It also relates to his behavior, with the New York hush money case and his 34 felony convictions there. So right now it very much relates to Donald Trump, but this decision is really about presidential power going forward. Now, the. The left wants to paint it as a picture or spin it as this was a conservative Supreme Court that's basically protecting Donald Trump who appointed many of the members. So you've got those competing viewpoints there. so the Supreme Court ruled 6 3 that the former president has sweeping immunity. sweeping may be a bit of a strong word. for actions taken while in office. But a president at least has presumptive immunity, sweeping may be a bit strong, for official acts while in office. Not unofficial acts, but official acts. So in the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the court held that a president may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers and is entitled at a minimum to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all of his official acts. Is Justice Roberts, do you know much about him? do you think he's a conservative or a liberal or do you know much about Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about that?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:John Roberts, he's neither, right? He's neither conservative or liberal, like judges, they're not political animals, right? All that they do is they call balls and they call strikes, right? they just say that the law is the law, right? of course, everyone knows that's not true, but that's something Robert likes to be seen as, I met Robert, I met Roberts, when
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:You oh, you met him. I didn't know you were big time
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I mean I if you're hobnobbing with justice roberts, man, what do you what are you doing working for the silverman law firm? You
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:and a few of the other justices at a, every, two years, every two years, the Canadian Supreme court justices meet. with their U. S. counterparts to discuss matters of jurisprudence. when I worked at the Canadian embassy, I planned and organized that meeting for all of them. And so I got to meet Canadian and U. S. Supreme Court justices there, and that's where I met Robert.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:There you go. Did you get a selfie or something?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:have a picture with him. It's not a selfie, but I do have a picture with him. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:so for our listeners out there, Justice Roberts has been considered a swing vote. Now he was appointed by a conservative Republican president, George W. Bush, and I think we all on the conservative side would probably say we would appoint somebody differently if we had to do it all over again, because he's not exactly a staunch conservative. I think if you were to ask W. Would he appoint someone differently? He probably would say yes, but that's how it goes. You appoint someone if you're a liberal Democrat, you want someone that's going to be liberal. for the term of their on the bench. And if you're a conservative Republican, you want someone who's going to be conservative for the term on the bench. I don't think George W. Bush and the Republicans got what they thought they were getting when they appointed justice Roberts, because he has sided with the Democrat appointed judges many times, but here he comes out with a ruling that's very favorable to Trump. And, rights and authors his opinion says the president has a immunity for official acts that's like the concept of respondent superior so you're Austin you're an attorney with the law firm you're a W two employee in many ways you're under our scope and control, for official acts with the firm. If you go out there and you commit malpractice, Austin, while you're practicing with the firm, we've got a policy and our firm will, will, defend you and use our malpractice policy. And whatever you do. As long as it's within your scope of the practice of law. but, if you go and off the rails and do something crazy, that's, not official. for example, let's say, I'm not saying, just to be clear, I'm sure Austin, Austin would never do anything like this, but if Austin were to steal money out of the IOLTA account, out of the trust account, or from the firm coffers, or steal from clients, that's not an official. That's Austin committing a crime. that's an unofficial act.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:further, let's say I really don't like opposing council and I decide to assassinate them, right?
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:not an official act. Now, if I say it's an official act, that makes it an official act, right? Is that how it
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:ha.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:was the bad faith. That I was seeing all over Twitter from very prominent, leftist, like commentators like, Oh, Joe Biden should just fire all six or should you just get seal team six to go assassinate the six seat, six Supreme court justices and say, it's an official act. It's like stupid stuff like that. And it's you have
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:what this, what this ruling actually said. you know that if anything like that happened, that's not an official act. And that's what the Supreme Court did, is they kicked, they didn't even rule on whether or not he's immune in this particular situation. They kicked it down to the lower court to decide if his actions on January 6th were an official act. And I think that's up for debate. I do.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, I think that's a hundred percent correct. I agree with the ruling. It, they leave it up to the court to make a fact-based sort of intensive decision. You look at all the facts and you decide whether this is an official act or not. justice Roberts also writes without such expansive immunity. from future prosecution. Presidents might hesitate from bold action to farther the nation's interest. the critics, the dissent, right? Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the decision is what she says. The decision makes a mockery of the principle foundational to our constitution and system of government. That no man is above the law. President Biden has latched onto that saying there's virtually no limits on what a president can do. I think that's political posturing. I don't think he really believes that. so there you have it. That's the law in a nutshell.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I entirely agree. I just wanted to read this one tweet that I found was just perfect on this
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Okay.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:from a guy named
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Go for it.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:It said, 600, 000 plus, an entire race in internment camps, drop nukes on civilians, invade a sovereign country, and drone strike American citizens, and face zero consequences. Think about it. And
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah. What? Yeah. Yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:retweeting that yeah, that this could happen. All those things are things that have been done by previous presidents with, and they faced absolutely no repercussions for it. First one, the Civil War. Second one, the Japanese internment camps, during World War II. Third one, dropping nuke, nuclear weapons during World War II. we can debate the, legality and morality of that. Invading sovereign countries has been done a lot of times, Bush, et cetera. And then drone striking American civilians, Obama. So it's like so many presidents have already done all these things and you have left this retreating that saying, yes, with this new ruling, presidents could do this and have no responsibility for it. It's they've already done it without this ruling. So I don't know how much that's going to help.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:See, there should be some content moderation there, right?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:why it's only on Twitter because the content moderation has been scaled back on Twitter. there is one more aspect of this law and this opinion that's interesting. The majority comes out and says that you can't use an official act as evidence in prosecuting Or proving an unofficial act. does that make sense to you?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:So if you have, if there's an official act, like you can't say that because this happened, there's an unofficial act basically.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:and it, Yes, in the hush money case, and I think the what people want to know is, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York related to a criminal hush money case. And what's now happening to him? Does this Supreme Court ruling have any effect on that hush money case on those convictions? And the answer is it very much does indeed. And Trump was supposed to be sentenced. For this hush money case, for these 34 felony counts, sometime in July. After this Supreme Court ruling, Trump's lawyers re urged the New York judge to examine the convictions in light of the Supreme Court ruling. The judge wisely chose to do has postponed the sentencing from July to September 6th, and is going to weigh whether or not the entire verdict in the New York convictions should be overturned. And if it's overturned, it's done. If he decides not to overturn it, then I guess they're going to have a sentencing on September 6th, which you're going to have this really weird dynamic of, what, are you going to put Trump on probation and he's going to take an ankle bracelet into the White House if he's elected, right?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:none of the legal scholars or the people that really know, they don't believe Trump is ever going to face sentencing for these 34. Felony convictions and the idea is that some of the evidence, for example, of an official act, I think he was, for example, tweeting about, maybe the election or you're doing some sort of official communication as a president, and they use those tweets, the prosecutors in the New York case, use those tweets to prove up an unofficial access saying that Trump's lawyers say one has to be overturned because that evidence never should have been presented under the Supreme Court. Trump ruling. so that's probably a valid attack. We're going to see what that New York court judge does on September 6. We'll keep everyone updated on that. But people believe this is a huge victory for Trump, huge victory for democracy, huge victory for the power of the executive branch. There's also a special prosecutor. That's been appointed. That's criminally prosecuting Trump, federally related to the January 6th events. And this Supreme Court ruling has far reaching ramifications on his strategy for prosecuting Trump. So there's that too, and we're not going to get into that today, but big win for Trump. conservatives are saying this is a big win for democracy, big win for America. The left is not happy about this, All right, let's go ahead and answer some legal questions. And this is where the show is going to go off the rails because we are talking about some very difficult sort of murky topics and I'm not sure if anyone knows the answer to some of this beach stuff. It's 4th of July, everyone's going to the beaches and we're talking about open beaches and the question that's been posed is, Austin, if you buy a beachfront house in Galveston or somewhere that and it's on the beach and a hurricane rolls through and you no longer have a house on the edge of the beach, you have a house on the beach with water. With waves crashing underneath your house because it's built on stilts. Do you still own the real estate? we're Okay. But it's close. Don't tell This all came about because there's a
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I think Galveston is some of the ugliest beaches in the entire world, but, um,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:guy who works for my realty company. And he bought a He has a contract on a beachfront property in Galveston. And he asked my opinion on it. And I said, run from that because the next hurricane that comes through, you're going to lose your property. And I was certain of it, but I'm not so certain that's true or what's right or what's wrong or whether we know up for down, but we're going to try to answer this question anyway. So the water in that Galveston is nasty. I get that people don't like it. I get that, but it is close.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:a lot of beaches in Galveston. I've been to a few, but I just remember always seeing glass bottles everywhere, all throughout. Maybe they've done a better job of cleaning them up since I've been there last, but I was always afraid to walk on the beach for fear of getting my feet torn up.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Do you know what the original name of Galveston Island was? Snake Island. It was bad for brand.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:No kidding.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:There's tons of rattlesnakes in the dunes, by the way. So if you go down to the beach, don't let your kids play in the dunes because the rattlers will get them.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:that's always a nice addition. Glass and rattlesnakes, yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:There's also alligators
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:ah, alligators.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:on the,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:We'll
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:throw in more, yeah. That just
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:it next to Australia. It's probably one of the most dangerous places on Earth. and the mosquitoes there, there's been outbreaks of, is it Dengue Fever or Donga Fever? Do you know, have you heard about this? There's,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:that, I know what disease you're talking about, but yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah. Yeah. There's outbreaks of that. I don't think in Galveston it was in Key West, but the mosquitoes will get you in Galveston. All right, we gotta talk about this. Open Beaches Act thing, G, generally speaking. Don't act so excited, Austin. it's Open Beaches and it's the 4th of July. you sold that one. All right. Texas Open Beaches Act ensures public access to beaches along the Gulf Coast. The I, this act was passed in 1959. And I want to say the Senator that sponsored it was a guy by the name of Babe Shorts, and he was, he's just an infamous character in Texas. So very vocal guy. He passes the Open Beaches Act, gets it passed, and it's, you think it's a good thing. We want to have 367 miles of coastline. We think that our citizens have a right to enjoy the beach, walk on the beach, and if people buy, buy beachfront property, there needs to be an easement. So Austin, when you go down to Galveston, you've got to, drive all the way, you've got to be able to get through people's private homes to get on the beach.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:It's sports, right? Swords with S C H W A R T Z. I was
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah, Babe Schwartz.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:his name was babe shorts, like clothing. I was like, that is a super stupid name, but no.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:No.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:is
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Now, Babe Shorts, I, he's got a long been dead by now. I didn't look up. is he dead or not? Surely he's dead.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:He's very dead. Yes.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Okay. We've got a quote from him. I don't know if I'm going to be able to find it very easily, but he was talking about keeping the beaches open for Texans to use and
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:everyone to have that access and go ahead. Awesome. You have the quote.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:we're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember, and against every advice anyone has given
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:That's a good quote.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:was how he felt. That's how he felt about private property rights for people that go to buy on the beach.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Interesting.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:all right. so you have the Open Beaches Act passed in 1959 and I'm not going to go into all the details, but the basic concept. Is your people can get access to the beach. You have this sort of rolling easement, and the idea is the easement is from the mean the average low tide watermark to the vegetation line, you're not a beach guy, maybe that doesn't make sense to you, but we're during low tide. The water goes, way out. And if you take the average of those tide, of those markings, all the way up toward the vegetation where you start seeing green stuff, Austin. That's the public gets access and for years in Galveston. People would do all kinds of things to bolster their vegetation line to protect their properties. I've seen people throw Christmas trees in the dunes. Try thinking that's going to do something right and they're protecting their beachfront investment. Okay, so We're rocking and rolling with the Open Beaches Act. You got this rolling easement, which is this really cool thing, and people from Dallas and the DFW area are driving down to beautiful Galveston Island, and they're using the beaches. Austin is making this face of disgust, but just go with me, okay? They're using the beaches, and along comes Hurricane Rita, I think, in 2005. I'm not sure Rita was much of a hurricane. I don't know, but a lot of wind, some hurricane. 2005 and along comes Carol Severance who owns a bunch of properties on Galveston Island beachfront and She's Storm comes through and she has all these houses Austin I kid you not it is if you were to look at the satellite imagery on Google it is like her houses are now in the beach with water like rushing under them. So this the state says, fly their chopper or their airplane, and they're like, look at all those houses down there. I think in the letter that they sent, they said, we'll pay you 40, 000 to go ahead and move your house. But that was because the state of Texas didn't really want to pay for the cost of destroy, of taking the house down and moving and they thought, we'll just pay him 40 grand because that's about the cost of moving the thing off the beach so that we can have our beaches back. So Carol Severance sues the state, goes up to the Supreme Court in 2012. No one has ever beaten the state. And guess what happens, Austin? She wins. So they say, basically they, they say that you can't take. that private property is right. the rolling easement, which is one of the coolest concepts in real estate, has finally been absolutely decimated by the Supreme Court of Texas. No more rolling easements, and Carol Severance gets her property. She can have them.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah, so basically they said it would be taking if they made a move. Is
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I, they said that, yeah, it was, but they left this very, this huge line of ambiguity. It said, we think the state can't take it without compensation, but we really don't know what happens. And I couldn't figure, I looked for hours, I could, we cannot figure out what happened to these houses on the beach. You, you can, you just, I mean at some point you can no longer get, utilities to them. you can't get access to them. If you're, if water is underneath your house at, 10pm or 11pm, you need to go to the grocery store, maybe you need to get emergency vehicles in there, at some point, practically, this doesn't work. This is, I think the Supreme Court was like up in its ivory tower or something making these decisions and just given a win for property rights, but at the same time, there's no real practical solution to, to, to what happened, right? then all of a sudden, many years later, I think there was a House bill in 2013 that said, all right, we're going to put this on the GLO, the Texas General Land Office. No more rolling easements, but we're going to give the Texas General Land Office the power to decide where the vegetation line starts and where the public easement is and whether there's going to be a taking of the property and all this kind of stuff. And it got even more ambiguous because the Texas General Land Office all of a sudden had this huge amount of discretion. So I found a, A clip or a blurb on the City of Galveston's website from 2021, and just to give us a current idea of where the law is today, we have this from the city. It says the Texas General Land Office notified the city of Galveston. This is on March 30th, 2021. In order has been issued that temporarily suspends the determination of the line of vegetation for two years and suspend certain enforcement actions. And for the removal of, certain enforcement actions for the removal of houses on the public beach for three years in parts of Galveston. Okay, so I don't know why they did that, but this is just an example of the weird ambiguity of where all this is.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:So that suspension would have come and gone already, correct?
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah, it's probably, so I don't, so if another storm comes this summer, this is a, what do we tell? the guy that works for my real estate company, whether to buy this house or not, you know what his insurance agent told him, how you buy a house, you get in and you're, Oh, I'm going to get it. he's all excited. I'm buying this beach front property. I've got this great deal on this beachfront property and the insurance agent. See, I'm going to say this casualty policy. And we know that casualty policies in Texas, your typical homeowner's insurance policy, Austin does not cover things for flood. That's a separate thing, that's a FEMA government thing, you have to have a separate flood policy, and that typically only covers about 250, 000 unless you want to buy an excess policy, which is extremely expensive if you can even get them anymore. if you're going to get an insurance policy in Galveston for wind, And storm, that's expensive, but it's, it generally is insuring. insurance policies have these things called covered perils. It's insuring things like your house was blown over by a hurricane. It doesn't insure, I don't think it insures. We can't, we're trying to figure out what happens when the hurricane passed through. Your house was rated to withstand these hurricane force winds, but your house is still there. It's just in the beach.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:All of a sudden, your house is public. Everyone can come and go inside your house
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:they can just walk underneath your house.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:inside it. They can go in there and just show in the house. It's Public
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:so the insurance agent of course tells the guy, oh you're covered, don't worry about this. You, a hurricane comes through, your house is in the beach, buy the policy, you're covered. You, people, listeners out there, never trust insurance agents. They want to sell a policy, they want to make a commission on the premium.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:trust. What is written in your policy and what you signed. I cannot tell you how many times I have people, me and other people at the firm, I have people call us and say, the insurance agent told me. okay, great. One, do you have that phone conversation recorded? No, we don't. Okay. is that in the policy? No, it's not. Oh, okay. this is really hard then. So yeah,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, don't trust your insurance agent because he's not there. He does. He is not qualified to read the policy. You need to get a copy of the policy. You need to have an attorney read it. You need to figure
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:just in general.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:that's yes, that is quite likely. Or he could read I don't know, like generations. He has like the reading ability of Gen Z or something like that. Just short, like short tweets or blurbs or something. He doesn't read more than three sentences.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:on TikTok, but that's about it.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, don't trust your insurance agent. I did a little research. the best I could find is that erosion, coastal erosion, is not a covered peril in a typical homeowner's insurance policy. So I think if there's an attorney, many of our listeners are attorneys, if there's an attorney out there listening to this that's an expert in coastal law, we're real estate attorneys, we're supposed to know about this stuff. I spent two hours researching it. I'm a little confused, but if anyone's listening and knows, please call me at the Silberman Law Firm and let me know. But I, I don't think it's a covered peril. I think you're out of luck. I'm wondering what bank or lender would lend on this property. Because, because if,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:who doesn't know about this.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah, is Chase Bank like up in New York, they're lending on this policy or something? you got a thousand square foot shack that's producing like 100, 000 a year in rental income through Sand and Sea or whatever, VRBO or whatever. And you're thinking this is, and you're buying the thing for half a million dollars. And the bank's giving you half a million dollar loan. Most of that value is in the dirt, is in the sand, is in the location. I think the lenders are crazy. Someone is, there's, is not looking at this. So, I don't know what, I don't know what we tell people looking to do this, Austin. I can't figure it out. we can just quote them, Babe Schwartz. So we're talking about damn fools here, I guess is what we quote them. I, we, if we may end up doing some more research on this, we may get some calls from some other listeners that, that figure this out and we'll update you. But I think we're going to leave everybody hanging. That's where the research trail has run off Mr. Black. and we're just going to leave it right there.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:that one in the sand and move on to something a little bit more
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah. We're going to, we're going to rock it along to fireworks. Okay. it's 4th of July. Everybody is out there. were you a big firework kid? Did you like fireworks?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I still love fireworks.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Okay, you're okay. You got a little twit.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:will say I'm not a huge fan of watching them. It's okay. I like shooting them myself.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Okay, no, then you are Texan. You are a Texan. I saw you a little twinkle or sparkle in your eye. I saw your eyes light up. When I asked you about fireworks if your eyes light up when I am when you hear about fireworks this time of year You're probably a Texan the thing to do I mean I grew up in Cypress, Texas And it was outside of the city of Houston and the thing that kids did you know If you're like a middle class kid in Cypress, Texas, you would go out to the street I lived on a cul de sac and all the kids would come out you'd buy your fireworks in the fireworks stand that's what you did it to and you just
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:de sac. Everyone's out there with their families and they have there's a designated like lighting zone, like in the middle of it and everyone like runs out, sets in the runs off, hopes they don't get
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah It was so dangerous. no, no helmets while we rode our bicycles. half the time. I don't know.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:bicycles while lighting a Roman candle and shooting it off.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yes. what were we thinking? But we got, so I, we have to figure out for our listeners today what fireworks are legal. Okay. And how is this regulated in Texas? All right. so you've got statewide regulation, you've got local county regulation, you've got municipal regulations.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:like to from the beginning of this, that I think any regulational fireworks whatsoever is a violation of the second amendment. This is my personal opinion. Then
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:when we're having no, no burn bands and we haven't had rain in many months in Texas, the fireworks bands are probably a good things. But
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:and shoot them there. It's just as dry, but they don't have a bands.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:okay. All right. You're allowed to buy fireworks or sell fireworks if you're a seller. By the way, this is a really cool business model. I was once talking to a guy. All he did was sell fireworks during the periods of time in Texas where you're allowed to sell fires is all he did. And if we've got, he's allowed to say you can sell June 24th to July 4th. that's for independence day. you can sell December 20th to January 1st because it's New Year's baby. You gotta blow off some fireworks. But this is all he sold for those two major periods and he made 250, 000 a year and he worked for two or three weeks a year and did nothing else. The rest of the year he hunted and he fished
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:man.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:it look rednecks out there. Okay, I don't know if we have any redneck listeners, but you know who you are and we probably do. But. This, you need to get in this business. if you're a Texas redneck and you love to hunt and fish and you want to make 250 grand a year, you get in the fireworks business. Okay. And you work two weeks a year.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:just
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:All right.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:build up a big enough business to where you have a lobbying entity in the Texas government. And then you just expand these windows and you can make even more. It'd be
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:We, we have some expanded windows for fireworks sales that I did not know about.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:aware of these either. Yeah. So Texas Independence Day, right? February 25, March 2, you can sell fireworks during that
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:who would have guessed? All right. Keep going. What other ones?
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:San Jacinto Day. April 16th, or just Cento Day, whatever you want to call
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Thank you. Thank you.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Day, April 16th through April 21st, you can sell fireworks then.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:de Mayo from May 1st to May 5th, you can sell fireworks
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:All right. Tha yes. Weird. But yes. thank you for correcting your pronunciation. of sa.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:correcting my correct pronunciation is innocent, though. It
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Texan, you don't say San Jacinto.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:so much
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:you, you say you, you say San Jacinto. Now, we have a road in Houston called San Felipe, and you're talking to an old time Houstonian if they call it San Filipe. Yeah, there,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:can be really hard nosed on San Jacinto as, a litmus test for a real Texan if they call Bexar County not Bexar County. I feel like you just gotta be consistent with, just say it.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:we get the, oh my goodness, Bexar County, yeah, you can't, we get a lot of business from out of state lawyers where they're calling us with lawsuits in Bexar County. And I'm happy.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:yeah, no. Don't do
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:no, we take, I don't know, take the money all day long. You call, you can call me whatever you want, you can call it whatever you want if you're going to pay my retainer. Okay, Alright, age restrictions. You get, you have to be 16 or older to legally purchase fireworks in Texas. I don't think that has ever been enforced.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:restrictions are in the Texas occupations code, right? Like I, I've never seen, I agree. I've never seen anyone actually check your ID at a fireworks purchasing stand, but I guess it could happen.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:it's like Mexico. If you can get your money up on the table, they're going to set, they're going to sell you the drink. Okay? If you're, if you can get your money up on the firework stand, they're going to sell you those fireworks in Texas. all right. What fireworks are permitted in the state? Sparklers. I'm not even sure that counts as a firework. I think that's it.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:It's not a fire. You
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:little pop rock things you throw on the ground. You can't call those fireworks, but
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Look. it.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Okay.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:if it's legal in Massachusetts, it's not a firework. let's just start with that. If anything that's legal north of the Mason Dixie line does not count as a firework. So
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:legal in Massachusetts?
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I don't know. Okay,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:fountains are permitted, and then other fireworks that are non aerial and non explosive. What are you doing? This is absolutely a violation of just American ethos.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:okay.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:you can't do this.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:that's the general permit permitted fireworks. But then you also have carve outs right for the cooler and the more explosive fireworks in unincorporated areas. Okay, so and you get into that's where you get a local. Regulations and restrictions Most big counties like Harris County City of Houston generally prohibited City of Austin. You can't do anything in Austin. So
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:with Dallas. do anything.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, same with Dallas. So is it enforced in the city of Houston? I don't know how the HPD I don't know how the Houston Police Department would enforce it because it sounds like gunfire and that's just going around
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:there. I just don't know how you
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:right,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:they don't care about the gunfire. So why would they care about the fireworks
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Right there. They're not responding to any of it in the city of Houston. So could be like marijuana, it's just not enforced. Okay. And if you're having a, if you're having a burn ban, you really can't do it. You have to be a licensed retailer to sell fireworks. I assume that's in the Texas occupations code.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:saying if I heard those numbers about selling fireworks during those permitted periods, during the year, I can't just buy a bunch of fireworks, put them in the back trunk of my car and go sell them on the side of the street. You're saying that's
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, it, that's going to require a license. So Bob out there, if you're listening, I think there's a great, there's a country song. I think the guy's name is Kevin Fowler. As you heard beer, bait and ammo,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:I
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:but he needs to add fireworks to that. it's
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Yeah.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah, it's an oldie, but a goodie. Check it out.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:gone fishing like with, with a bottle with a Roman candle? it's difficult, but if
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I'm sure
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:fish with it, they're just floating to the top.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:that's also illegal. Dynamite fishing is illegal in Texas. All right, so you've got relevant law Texas occupations code section 2154. 301 you're gonna get fine Texans have a high rate of firework usage. It causes a lot of problems 900 fireworks related injuries in many years we can expect lots of injuries You got to be safe with the fireworks. Okay, hard to do. I know. Something interesting though, we need to figure out this bottle rocket thing is we used to, this was just so I can't believe we did this Austin, but we would hold the bottle rockets in our hands, light them in our hands and then throw them at each other.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:absolutely.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:So I just, I just can't even imagine. I'm like beginning to have now. Now that I've got four Children, I'm beginning to have an anxiety attack. Just saying that,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:survive, right? If this today, we would have so many fewer weak children in the world. They would have been like, what it like the chaff would have been cast aside. Cause they would have been just totally
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:pool by these puddle rockets.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I, yeah, I don't know about all that. There, there's some weird rule on bottle rockets. it's like, it relates to the milligrams of gunpowder or ammunition, whatever this is, the milligrams of explosive material in the bottle rocket and that's how which ones are legal and which ones are not legal. So look, the bottom line, public service message out there, if you're in a major municipality, fireworks are probably illegal in Texas. That's why you need to drive out to an unincorporated area. You need to check with the laws for that area and the regulations if you're going to be buying and shooting off fireworks, best way to do that. Call the local constable or the sheriff and just ask, what the laws are in that area, look it up online, whatever, but know where you're shooting them and know whether it's legal or not. And just be careful. Don't drink a lot of alcohol while you do it. don't drink any alcohol while you do it is probably that's not going to happen. Who are we kidding? This is Texas All right, I'll say anything you want to say before we move around or move along to our rant rave section
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:we nailed that.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, rant and rave section as always my favorite part of the show This is going to be a really short rant and rave section and it relates to an update
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:very near and dear to your heart. Yes.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:I do not smoke weed, but I have been on this platform. I have really made it my calling to try to educate our young people on how bad THC products are for you right now. and if you've, if you listen to previous episodes, You can hear some of that and we know that these THC products that they're doing these gummies or these drinks or whatever, they have high potency in THC and there was a really interesting study that was done. some guy, okay, went around and he tested. all of these dispensaries, I guess it's called the dispensary, but you know those stores like CBD or whatever, they're selling gummies or whatever they sell, selling their hemp based products. And he went and bought, I think he went to a thousand stores, some huge number of stores, and he went and bought all these products and he tested them. And he found that the THC in those products that he tested, which were legal, contained between 5 and, contained between 5 and 12 percent THC content in them.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Did this guy like put this on YouTube or something? Is it like,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:No, this was a pub, this was a published article.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:article. So I
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:like, if he let everyone know which brands were the higher, just so you know,
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:it's something crazy like whoever is in charge of enforcing this in Texas, they have just a handful of regulators. to go and regulate these shops or these dispensaries that are selling these THCs products. And if they were to do it for years, they could, they could never,
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:all. No, never.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:they could never catch it all. So all of these dispensaries out there are selling this very potent THC. and here's the statistic that blew my mind. the hemp products that they're buying are these THC products that they're buying, have this 5 to 12 percent, potency of THC. He, in the study, he goes back and he takes samples of all the marijuana that the DEA confiscated in the 1980s. I don't know how he got that or how he got records of, If the samples were still good, but he took samples and he found out that the average potency was only three percent.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:DEA secret stash. That's how they're all
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah. apparently not high enough because they can, you can just go down to your local corner store and buy some gummies or whatever and they're going to be much more. That's my rant about this. Our young people or people in general are taking these products thinking these are safe alternatives. This is better than alcohol, or it's an okay thing to take the edge off and to take stress off, but there, we've seen medical studies that people are just having these psychotic episodes after years of use of these gummies or whatever these THC products thinking they're safe, and they're saying, and the doctors are looking at, so this is not the marijuana, that Bob Marley was smoking. This is not the marijuana that, all of, your parents or your grandparents smoked it at Woodstock. This is very strong stuff. And it's bad stuff. So that's the message. That's the rant, public service messages. This, this episode, Austin, the big takeaways here are going to be, be careful, be very careful if you're buying a property on the beach. If you're using fireworks or if you're buying THC products. Okay, those are the that's the message and I
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:quickly, as a brief breaking news we've talked about non competes and we talked about the FTC's attempt to promulgate a final rule banning, non competes currently enforced and any future non competes, a Texas judge just did issue a ruling. for stalling the enforcement of that final rule. so if you have a non compete, please contact us. As we said before, operate as if it's in effect, operate as if it's valid and binding and the FTC ruling doesn't have anything to do with it. It was just stalled from going into effect. So that was exactly what we thought was going to happen. Did happen.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:yeah, that's a great of it. I'm glad you caught that and it non competes are very much enforceable in Texas. So happy 4th of July. Everybody that
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:subject to non competes. I'm sorry.
phil-silberman_3_07-03-2024_161606:Yeah, it's you are not free. if you're subject to a non compete, you are not free to go work for somebody else. Okay, if you're in a non compete and that FTC ruling is has just been shot down. Thank you for that update. That brings our show to a close. I've been your host, Phil Silberman. Austin Black has been my co host. Like us, follow us, review us, wherever you get your podcasts. Nothing in this show, especially this show, because there were so many topics that we were just off the rails on, is to be considered legal advice. All this is for entertainment purposes. If you have a legal question, email us at info at sylblawfirm. com. That's I N F O at sylblawfirm. com. Tell us you want it answered publicly in the podcast. Happy 4th of July, everybody. Have a great weekend and holiday.
austin_3_07-03-2024_151604:Bye.
