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Beau Carter
Beau Carter
Beau Carter
Associate
beau.carter@bakerbotts.com
DETAILS
Practices
Appellate and Supreme Court
Environmental Appeals Federal and State Judicial and Administrative
Litigation
Details
Overview
Overview Admissions & Affiliations Experience News Thought Leadership
Practices
Appellate and Supreme Court
Environmental Appeals Federal and State Judicial and Administrative
Litigation

Overview

Beau Carter is an associate in the Appellate and Supreme Court practice group in Houston. He has experience litigating a wide variety of subjects, including constitutional law, administrative law, statutory interpretation, and complex issues involving environmental law and cooperative federalism.

Beau represents clients in high-stakes appeals in Texas and across the country, most often in the Fifth Circuit and Supreme Court of Texas. His practice also focuses on challenges to federal agency rulemakings in federal courts of appeals nationwide. Beau has developed skilled experience in seeking extraordinary relief from appellate courts in emergency situations, such as judicial stays of agency rules or petitions for writs of mandamus. Beyond representing parties to the case, Beau has authored numerous amicus briefs in state and federal appellate courts, including in the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Texas. Beau’s work in trial courts focuses on briefing and arguing dispositive motions on complex legal issues, usually at the summary-judgment stage.

Before joining Baker Botts, Beau served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable Jeffrey S. Boyd of the Supreme Court of Texas. Between those clerkships, Beau served as a Gregory S. Coleman Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of Texas.

Admissions & Affiliations

  • State Bar of Texas
  • United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits
  • Federalist Society, Houston Lawyers Chapter

Education

  • J.D., Pepperdine University School of Law 2019
    magna cum laude
    Order of the Coif
    Lead Articles Editor, Pepperdine Law Review
    Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic
    President, Federalist Society
  • B.A., Political Science, Abilene Christian University 2016
    President, Students' Association

Experience

Federal Appeals

  • Briefed and argued appeal securing affirmance in First Amendment retaliation case about scope of public-employee speech protection. Harrison v. Lilly, 854 F. App’x 554 (5th Cir. Mar. 25, 2021).
  • Drafted amicus brief for industry trade association supporting vacatur of EPA’s disapproval of Texas’s state implementation plan, ultimately resulting in voluntary dismissal with vacatur. Texas v. EPA, No. 23-60616 (5th Cir. Aug. 22, 2024).
  • Briefed and assisted in en banc argument securing reversal of injunction preventing enforcement of Texas law. Whole Women’s Health v. Paxton, 10 F.4th 430 (5th Cir. 2021) (en banc).
  • Briefed appeal securing emergency stay of an injunction preventing enforcement of Texas law on the eve of an election. LULAC v. Hughs, 978 F.3d 136 (5th Cir. 2020).
  • Assisted in oral argument in original-jurisdiction dispute over water rights under interstate compacts. Texas v. New Mexico, No. 65, Orig. (U.S. Oct. 5, 2020).

State Appeals

  • Briefed appeal securing dismissal of challenges to Public Utility Commission orders preserving reliability of electric grid during Winter Storm Uri. Pub. Util. Comm’n of Tex. v. Luminant Energy Co. LLC, 691 S.W.3d 448 (Tex. 2024).
  • Briefed appeal securing reversal on the merits preventing Harris County election official from taking ultra vires actions. State of Texas v. Hollins, 620 S.W.3d 400 (Tex. 2020); In re State of Texas, No. 20-0715 (Tex. Sept. 15, 2020) (securing emergency stay).
  • Briefed appeal securing emergency stay and reversal on the merits in challenge to legality of Governor’s proclamations under the Texas Disaster Act. Abbott v. Anti-Defamation League Austin, Sw. & Texoma Regions, 610 S.W.3d 911 (Tex. 2020).
  • Argued on behalf of State of Texas in challenge to constitutionality of state law. Brazos River Auth. v. City of Houston, No. 03-20-00076-CV (Tex. App.—Austin Dec. 2, 2020).

Notable Amicus Briefs

  • Drafted amicus briefs for religious scholar regarding proper application of First Amendment ministerial-exception and church-autonomy doctrines. O’Connell v. U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops, No. 23-7173 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 13, 2024); Garrick v. Moody Bible Institute, No. 21-2683 (7th Cir. Apr. 26, 2024).
  • Drafted amicus brief for State of Texas supporting successful petitioner in challenge to affirmative-action policies as violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, No. 20-1199 (U.S. Mar. 30, 2021).
  • Drafted amicus brief for State of Texas and District of Columbia, joined by fifteen additional states, supporting successful petitioner in upholding constitutionality of elected board’s censure of its member under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Houston Cmty. Coll. Sys. v. Wilson, No. 20-804 (U.S. July 21, 2021).