Porteé v. Morath: A Spouse's Private Suit Beat Texas's Two-Year Rule

What happened

This is a private lawsuit, not a Justice Department enforcement action. On May 17, 2023 a military spouse sued the Texas Commissioner of Education in his official capacity, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the State Board for Educator Certification in the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas under Section 4025a, the license portability provision added to the SCRA on January 5, 2023. She sought a declaration, an injunction, costs and attorney's fees, not damages (November 20, 2023 order pages 2, 4 to 5 and 13). The United States took part only by filing a Statement of Interest.

As the court recounts it, she was licensed as a school counselor in Ohio on July 21, 2021 and in Missouri on July 7, 2022, and in 2022 worked as a long-term substitute counselor at an Ohio middle school and a guidance counselor at a Missouri elementary school. Her husband, an active duty Air Force officer, had PCS orders from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois to Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas with a January 9, 2023 report date, and she left her job to go with him. Texas bars districts from employing a counselor without a state certificate, and its rule for out-of-state licensees requires either passing Texas examinations or verifying two academic years of full-time, wage-earning experience in the licensed role (19 Tex. Admin. Code § 230.113(b)). Her October 4, 2022 application was rejected immediately for lack of that experience (order pages 3 to 4).

In February 2023 she told the agencies about Section 4025a. TEA's Director of Educator Credentialing still required the two years or a classroom teaching certificate and, as the court quotes him, said an Air Force article about automatically transferring certifications "would not apply to Texas." On March 2, 2023 he wrote that because the statute defined a covered license as one "actively used during the two years immediately preceding the relocation," she still needed two creditable years of service. In court the state read that phrase to require continuous use for the whole period, beginning in January 2021 (order pages 4 and 8).

The United States filed its Statement of Interest on July 13, 2023, arguing that "during" meant at some point in the course of the two years, that enforcing Section 4025a served national defense and military readiness, and that she had standing (Statement of Interest pages 1, 2 and 8 to 11). Judge Robert Pitman granted a preliminary injunction on July 21, 2023. The defendants never answered the complaint or responded to her motion for judgment on the pleadings, and the court denied their second request for more time. On November 20, 2023 it granted that motion, held her Ohio and Missouri licenses were covered licenses, made the injunction permanent and entered final judgment (order pages 1, 5, 10 and 14 to 15; final judgment).

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 4025a

Portability of professional licenses of servicemembers and their spouses: read the statute , or read § 4025a in plain English, with its enforcement record .

This federal law is in place to help military spouses maintain their careers and financial security while enduring already stressful life changes.

Who was covered

Only the plaintiff in this private suit. The final judgment enjoins the defendants from enforcing 19 Tex. Admin. Code § 230.113(b) against her application for a Texas educator certificate to the extent it requires verifying continuous use of her out-of-state school counseling licenses for the two years before her relocation, and the court described the injunction as applying solely to her (final judgment; order page 13). No other applicant or licensing board is named in the judgment. It was, however, the first court reading of the provision: the opinion notes that no court had yet interpreted the SCRA's license portability provisions (order page 8).

How the case was resolved

• No settlement and no damages. This was a private suit for declaratory and injunctive relief; the court noted she sought no compensatory damages and that money claims against state entities and officials are generally barred by sovereign immunity (order page 13).
• A declaration that the defendants violated Section 4025a to the extent they required her to verify continuous use of her school counseling licenses for the two years before her move to Texas, and a permanent injunction against applying that requirement to her application (final judgment).
• Costs of court and a reasonable attorney's fee under § 4042(b), with her fee motion and bill of costs due within fourteen days of the judgment (final judgment page 2). The filings DOJ's case page links do not state the amount awarded.

Why this case matters

The statutory clause this private suit turned on is no longer in the statute. The court read "actively used during the two years immediately preceding the relocation" to mean use at some point in that window, noting that Congress could have written "continuously used" and that the state's reading would shut out newly licensed people and experienced ones who work part time or had taken recent leave (order pages 9 to 10). Congress then rewrote the section: Public Law 118-159, dated December 23, 2024, amended § 4025a generally, and the text in GovInfo's 2024 edition of the Code, read October 10, 2026, defines a covered license by good standing, no revocation or discipline, no pending investigation for unprofessional conduct and no surrender while under investigation, with no active-use period and no exclusion for law licenses; GovInfo's 2023 edition still printed both in § 4025a(c). The amended section also lets a licensing authority unable to carry out portability within 30 days of an application issue a temporary license (§ 4025a(b)). Cite the amended text, not the 2023 version this court construed.