OPINION
DOGGETT, Justice.In this mandamus proceeding, we address three issues: (1) the ability of a judge to suppress speech with a “gag order;” (2) whether Relator was impermissibly denied access to court records; and (3) the appropriate standard for removal of a guardian ad litem. Applying our state constitutional *6guarantee of free expression to invalidate the trial court’s unconstitutional prior restraint on speech, we grant this part of the petition for writ of mandamus. Because the trial court did not otherwise abuse its discretion, the remainder of the petition is denied.
A guardian ad litem was appointed to represent two hundred and thirteen children among numerous persons who brought suit concerning toxic chemical exposure at the Brio Dump site in Harris County. In a 1987 settlement the adults released all claims to future medical benefits for their children, and in 1989 the ad litem withdrew. In February 1990 Judge Alice Trevathan, then the presiding judge, appointed Valorie Davenport, Relator herein, as guardian ad litem.
After eighteen months of work, Davenport submitted a bill for her services on August 21, 1991. At a hearing two days later, Judge Carolyn Garcia, who had become the presiding trial judge, on her own motion, questioned the continued need for a guardian ad litem. Additionally, the court entered an oral injunction, described as a “gag order,” instructing the ad litem, parties and counsel to “cease and desist any discussion of this case outside the court hearing” and prohibiting any “communications with any other lawyer or discussion at all about the matters that have transpired in this case.”
On September 10 the trial court dismissed Davenport, concluding that because the parents were no longer seeking either individual recovery or expense reimbursement, no conflict of interest existed to justify continuation of the ad litem. The court also found unnecessary ad litem oversight of a medical monitoring program proposed by defendants as part of a settlement. While noting that the parents’ counsel had “competently handled [this] litigation” in “securing] a generous settlement proposal for the minor children,” Judge Garcia did not specify any change in circumstances following Judge Trevathan’s appointment of Davenport. The next day, again on its own motion, the court entered a protective order requiring that:
1. Counsel in this case, present and former, are expressly ORDERED to refrain from discussing or publishing in writing or otherwise, any matters of this case with any persons other than their clients, agents, or employees in the necessary course of business in this case.
2. Counsel is ORDERED to refrain from any public comment, casual or otherwise concerning the facts of this case or the conduct of counsel in this case other than in a court hearing.
3. Counsel is ORDERED to inform their clients, witnesses, agents and representatives that this ORDER extends to each of them and is subject to a finding of contempt by this court from disobedience, direct or indirect comment intended to violate this ORDER. Counsel was and is directed to communicate with their clients only, and advise each that they are directed to refrain from discussing the case except with counsel.
I. The Gag Order
The trial court correctly characterized as a “gag order” its oral injunction of August 23, which prohibited all discussion of the Brio case outside the courtroom. Personally informed by the judge that she was “relieved of responsibility,” and that she had “been ordered by the Court not to discuss the case with anyone,” Relator risked contempt should she speak either in public or even in private to any of the children whose interests she had represented. Nor did the order permit any party to discuss the case or the pending settlement with a family physician, medical expert, or another attorney.
These limitations were reiterated in the written protective order of September 12, which prohibited any public comment or discussion of the litigation with anyone not involved in the “necessary course of business of this case.” Counsel were also directed to inform their clients of the order’s applicability to each of them. The sole reason given for this sweeping injunction was the finding that “conflicts between counsel and the parents of the minor children were resulting in miscommunications *7with the parents of the children and with the media and general public.”
We consider whether the court’s gag orders violate the guarantee of free expression contained in article I, section 8 of the Texas Constitution, which provides in pertinent part:
Every person shall be at liberty to speak, write or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege....
The history of this provision is a rich one, and its language demonstrates Texas’ strong and longstanding commitment to free speech. By the plain language of our constitution, this fundamental liberty “shall forever remain inviolate.” Tex. Const, art. I, § 29.
From the outset of this state’s history, freedom of expression was a priority. As rural communities developed from the wilderness in the young region, Mexico passed the Constitutive Act of 1824, uniting Coa-huila and Texas into one Mexican state. Already integrated into the government and with nine times the population of Texas, Coahuila predominated. After unsuccessful efforts to have the new state government forward their written complaints or remonstrances to the central government,1 dissatisfied Texans sought in 1833 a Mexican state constitution separate from Coahuila. This first proposed constitution incorporated the strong desire of Texans to speak without fear of governmental repression:
The free communication of thoughts and opinions, is one of the inviolable rights of man; and every person may freely speak, write, print, and publish, on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.
Proposed Constitution for the State of Texas (1833) art. 16, reprinted in Documents of Texas History, at 80 (Ernest Wallace ed. 1963). As an early advocate of a strong state constitution,2 Stephen F. Austin was jailed for his outspokenness in personally carrying this proposed charter and other remonstrances to Mexico City.3 The authoritarianism and unresponsiveness of Mexico to these attempts to exercise and establish protection of free speech were a contributing factor to Texas’ revolution and independence.4
Although the 1836 Texas Independence Constitution in general closely tracked the wording of the United States Constitution, different language was chosen to protect speech:
Every citizen shall be at liberty to speak, write, or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege. No law shall ever be passed to curtail the liberty of speech or of the press; and in all prosecutions for libels, the truth may be given in evidence, and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and fact, under the direction of the court.
Constitution of the Republic of Texas, Declaration of Rights § 4 (1836).5 Rather than *8a restriction on governmental interference with speech such as that provided by the First Amendment of the United State Constitution, Texans chose from the beginning to assure the liberties for which they were struggling with a specific guarantee of an affirmative right to speak. This language of the Texas Independence Constitution became the model for all of our subsequent state constitutions.
At the 1845 constitutional convention, after renewed deliberation concerning the terms of the free speech provision,6 the 1836 language was kept largely intact.7 What had been the Declaration of Rights was, as otherwise revised, renamed the Bill of Rights and moved to a place of overriding prominence, at the outset of the Constitution. The next three constitutions in 1861, 1866, and 1869 retained this language amidst intense public debate over secession8 and reconstruction.
The drafters of the 1876 Constitution began their convention with a heightened sensitivity of the need for a strong state constitution.9 While major changes in the Bill of Rights were not initially anticipated,10 vigorous debate ensued.11 Delegate McLean’s efforts to tie freedom of speech to “good motives” in the libel section was disapproved.12 Additionally, a proposal to replace the existing free expression provision with alternative language more similar to that of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution was explicitly rejected.13 By substituting the word “person” for the prior “citizen” in the current language of article one, section eight, “[e]very person shall be at liberty to speak, write, or publish his opinions on any subject,” the delegates removed any citizenship requirement. Compare Tex. Const, of 1845, art. I, §§ 5-6. In their careful attention to its language, Texans once again chose protection in article one, section eight that is highly distinct from the First Amendment. Continued inclusion of an expansive freedom of expression clause and rejection of more narrow protections indicates a desire in Texas to ensure broad liberty of speech.
Consistent with this history, we have recognized that in some aspects our free speech provision is broader than the First Amendment. O’Quinn v. State Bar of Texas, 763 S.W.2d 397, 402 (Tex.1988) (noting that “Texas’ free speech right [has been characterized] as being broader than its federal equivalent,” the court concluded that “it is quite obvious that the Texas *9Constitution’s affirmative grant of free speech is more broadly worded than the first amendment”); Channel 4, KGBT v. Briggs, 759 S.W.2d 939, 944 (Tex.1988) (Gonzalez, J., concurring) (the state provision is “more expansive than the United States Bill of Rights”). See also Casso v. Brand, 776 S.W.2d 551, 556 (Tex.1989) (“our state free speech guarantee may be broader than the corresponding federal guarantee”).
Under our broader guarantee, it has been and remains the preference of this court to sanction a speaker after, rather than before, the speech occurs. This comports with article one, section eight of the Texas Constitution, which both grants an affirmative right to “speak ... on any subject,” but also holds the speaker “responsible for the abuse of that privilege.” The presumption in all cases under section eight is that pre-speech sanctions or “prior restraints” are unconstitutional. Ex Parte Price, 741 S.W.2d 366, 369 (Tex.1987) (Gonzalez, J., concurring) (“Prior restraints ... are subject to judicial scrutiny with a heavy presumption against their constitutional validity.”); Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Carl’s Meat and Provision Co., 475 S.W.2d 300 (Tex.Civ.App.—Beaumont 1971, writ dism’d).14
In Ex Parte Tucker, 110 Tex. 335, 220 S.W. 75 (1920), this court applied section eight to safeguard speech which may not otherwise have been guaranteed under the First Amendment as interpreted in that era. That case involved an injunction prohibiting union members from “vilifying, abusing, or using ... epithets” against the employees of a particular company. While such “fighting words” may not have been federally protected,15 the court relied upon our own constitution:
The purpose of [article one, section eight] is to preserve what we call “liberty of speech” and “the freedom of the press,” and at the same time hold all persons accountable to the law for the misuse of that liberty or freedom. Responsibility for the abuse of the privilege is as fully emphasized by its language as that the privilege itself shall be free from all species of restraint. But the abuse of the privilege ... shall be dealt with in no other way. It is not to be remedied by denial of the right to speak, but only by appropriate penalties for what is wrongfully spoken. Punishment for the abuse of the right, not prevention of its exercise, is what the provision contemplates.
220 S.W. at 76. In two early prior restraint cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals also relied on the state constitution to void injunctions prohibiting publication of trial testimony. Ex Parte McCormick, 129 Tex.Cr.R. 457, 88 S.W.2d 104 (App.1935) (orig. proceeding); Ex Parte Foster, 44 Tex.Cr.R. 423, 71 S.W. 593 (App.1903).
This court previously indicated that a prior restraint would be permissible only when essential to the avoidance of an impending danger. Hajek v. Bill Mowbray Motors, Inc., 647 S.W.2d 253, 255 (Tex. 1983) (striking down an injunction because the language at issue “evoked no threat of danger to anyone and, therefore, may not be subject to the prior restraint of a temporary injunction.”). See also Dallas General Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers v. Wamix, Inc. of Dallas, 156 Tex. 408, 295 S.W.2d 873, 879 (1956); Ex Parte Tucker, 220 S.W. at 76 (speech is properly restrained only when involving an actionable and immediate threat); Pirmantgen v. Feminelli, 745 S.W.2d 576, 579 (Tex.App.— Corpus Christi 1988, no writ) (restriction *10against disseminating an allegedly libelous letter was an unconstitutional prior restraint).
Since the dimensions of our constitutionally guaranteed liberties are continually evolving, today we build on our prior decisions by affirming that a prior restraint on expression is presumptively unconstitutional. With this concept in mind, we adopt the following test: a gag order in civil judicial proceedings will withstand constitutional scrutiny only where there are specific findings supported by evidence that (1) an imminent and irreparable harm to the judicial process will deprive litigants of a just resolution of their dispute, and (2) the judicial action represents the least restrictive means to prevent that harm. Assisting our analysis are federal cases that have addressed prior restraints. The standard enunciated in Nebraska Press Ass’n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 563-64, 96 S.Ct. 2791, 2804-05, 49 L.Ed.2d 683 (1976), does not, however, sufficiently protect the rights of free expression that we believe that the fundamental law of our state secures. Today we adopt a test recognizing that article one, section eight of the Texas Constitution provides greater rights of free expression than its federal equivalent.16
We are fully aware that a prior restraint will withstand scrutiny under this test only under the most extraordinary circumstances. That result is consistent with the mandate of our constitution recognizing our broad right to freedom of expression in Texas. An individual’s rights under the state constitution do not end at the courthouse door; rather, the courthouse is properly the fortress of those rights.
The first requirement of our standard advances from the prior holdings of Texas courts that only an imminent, severe harm can justify prior restraint, and in the context of gag orders, that harm must be to the judicial process. Ex Parte McCormick, 88 S.W.2d 104; Ex Parte Foster, 71 S.W. at 595. The mandate that findings of irreparable harm be made is based on our state constitutional preference for post-speech remedies. Only when no such meaningful remedies exist will prior restraints be tolerated in this context.
The second part of the test is intended to ensure that no alternative exists to treat the specific threat to the judicial process which would be less restrictive of state speech rights. While this element is shared in common with the ruling in Nebraska Press, 427 U.S. at 563-64, 96 S.Ct. at 2804-05,17 we view the federal test an*11nounced therein18 as too permissive toward prior restraints and decline to adopt it.19 The federal approach offers only limited guidance concerning gag orders such as that involved here, which restrict access to information by prohibiting individuals from discussing a case.20 Such orders should be treated like any other prior restraint.
Applying this test to the facts of this case, there can be no doubt but that the gag orders violated article one, section eight of the Texas Constitution. The orders fail to identify any miscommunication that the trial court may have perceived, does not indicate any specific, imminent harm to the litigation, and offers no explanation of why such harm could not be sufficiently cured by remedial action. For instance, had any miscommunication stemmed from improper statements by Relator, as implied by the court, the proper response may have been to sanction her conduct. By stopping not only the purported miscommunications but any communications, the broadly worded injunction certainly fails the second part of our test.
While a gag order may be expeditious in producing a settlement, decisions to terminate litigation based on lack of information can facilitate injustice. Additionally, “the argument of convenience can have no weight as against those safeguards of the constitution which were intended by our fathers for the preservation of the rights and liberties of the citizen.” Ex Parte McCormick, 88 S.W.2d at 107. These liberties are central to the Texas Constitution. We have before announced:
Let it at once be admitted that courts may arrogate the authority of deciding what the individual may say and may not say, what he may write and may not write, and by an injunction writ require him to adapt the expression of his sentiments to only what some judge may deem fitting and proper, and there may be readily brought about the very condition against which the constitutional guaranty was intended as a permanent protection. Liberty of speech will end where such control begins.
Ex Parte Tucker, 220 S.W. at 76 (emphasis added). We conclude today, as we did over seventy years ago, that the judicially imposed gag orders in question are void.
II. The Role of the State Constitution
Having found that the trial court’s gag orders violate article I, section 8 of the Texas Constitution, this court need not consider whether the United States Constitution has also been violated. Today we reaffirm our prior pronouncement that “[o]ur constitution has independent vitality, and this court has the power and duty to protect the additional state guaranteed rights of all Texans.” LeCroy v. Hanlon, 713 S.W.2d 335, 339 (Tex.1986). We decline to *12limit the liberties of Texans to those found in the Federal Constitution when this court is responsible for the preservation of Texas’ own fundamental charter. When a state court interprets the constitution of its state merely as a restatement of the Federal Constitution, it both insults the dignity of the state charter and denies citizens the fullest protection of their rights.
A.
Over the past twenty years, state courts have increasingly looked to their own constitutions, rather than the Federal Constitution, in examining the extent of their citizens’ liberties.21 This trend toward what has variously been called “state constitutionalism” and “new federalism” has met with broad approval.22 Numerous commentators and courts, both state and federal, have advocated and applied a method of constitutional analysis wherein the state court may examine its own constitution first to determine whether the right in question is protected.23 Within the context of such an analysis, a state court can bene*13fit from the insights of well-reasoned and developed federal jurisprudence, but is not compelled to reach identical results.
Our courts recognized the importance of our state constitution long before “new federalism” even had a name. A century-long line of Texas cases support applying our state’s constitution,24 particularly in the area of free speech. Our decision in 1920 to rely on the plain language of article I, section 8 in striking down a prior restraint in Ex Parte Tucker, 220 S.W. at 76, predated the application of the First Amendment to the states. See Ex Parte Price, 741 S.W.2d 366, 369 (Tex.1987) (Gonzalez, J., concurring).25
In Traveler’s Insurance Co. v. Marshall, 124 Tex. 45, 76 S.W.2d 1007, 1010 (1934), this court struck down a state statute solely under the Texas Constitution, dismissing relevant caselaw interpreting a similar federal constitutional provision regarding the state’s police power because “it can have no application to the Constitution of Texas.” The court explained that “[i]t is quite obvious the same rule of interpretation cannot be applied to the contract clause in our State Constitution_” Id., 76 S.W.2d at 1011.
In Sax v. Votteler, 648 S.W.2d 661 (Tex. 1983), we invalidated a statute of limitations under the Texas Constitution’s open courts provision. While expressly recognizing that the appeal was brought under both federal and state law, id. at 663, the court concluded that because article I, section 13 “does accord Texas citizens additional rights, we choose not to decide this case on the basis of the United States Constitution.” Id. at 664.26 Holding legislation increasing a filing fee unconstitutional under the state open courts provision, we noted in LeCroy, 713 S.W.2d at 338, that “state constitutions can and often do provide additional rights for their citizens.” 27 We relied on the Texas Constitution because “[b]y enforcing our constitution, we provide Texans with their full individual rights and strengthen federalism.” Id. at 339 (emphasis added). In doing so we observed that Texas is “in the mainstream of *14this [state constitutionalism] movement.” Id. at 338. The next year, the court voided a gender-based distinction in the Family Code based solely on the Texas Constitution. In re Baby McLean, 725 S.W.2d 696, 698 (Tex.1987) (“[b]ecause we hold that [a provision] of the Texas Family Code violates the Texas Constitution, we need not reach the federal law issues”). Hence, in the past decade this court has strongly reaffirmed its continued commitment to our state constitution.28
This approach has also been embraced by our sister court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. We give thoughtful consideration to that court’s analysis in part to avoid conflicting methods of constitutional interpretation in our unusual system of bifurcated highest courts of appeal. See Commissioners’ Court of Nolan County v. Beall, 98 Tex. 104, 81 S.W. 526, 528 (1904). As noted above, in two early prior restraint cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals applied the state constitution to strike down orders that the press not publish testimony until after a trial was completed. In Ex Parte Foster, 71 S.W. 593, the court looked both to Texas’ free speech clause and also our guarantee of public trials. Id. at 595. A year after this court decided Traveler’s Insurance Co. v. Marshall, the Court of Criminal Appeals again relied on the state constitution in deciding Ex Parte McCormick, 88 S.W.2d 104, an equally notable case.29 Most recently in Heitman v. State, 815 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Crim.App.1991) (en banc), the argument that the Texas Constitution intended harmony with the federal Fourth Amendment was disavowed. Id. at 682. The court explained that it “may review and ‘rethink’ federal constitutional decisions and thereby ensure that ... [Texas] citizens will have the ‘double security’ the federal constitution was intended to provide.” Id. at 687. After analysis of the history and placement of the Bill of Rights in our constitution, the court concluded that “[c]learly our own state constitution was not intended by our own founding fathers to mirror that of the federal government.” Id. at 690.
This commitment of Texas to its own constitution is consistent with the principle of federalism embodied in the United States Constitution. Its authors intended that “[i]n the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is divided between two distinct governments.... Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. ” The Federalist No. 51, at 323 (James Madison) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1961) (emphasis added). The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that “[i]t is fundamental that state courts be left free and unfettered by us in interpreting their state constitutions.” Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U.S. 551, 557, 60 S.Ct. 676, 679, 84 L.Ed. 920 (1940). It has reiterated its unwillingness to “limit the authority of the State ... to adopt in its own Constitution individual liberties more expansive than those conferred by the Federal Constitution.” Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 81, 100 S.Ct. 2035, 2040, 64 L.Ed.2d 741 (1980). Noting that the language of the Texas Constitution’s due process and equal protection clauses is broader than the federal, it has concluded that:
[A] state is entirely free to read its own State’s constitution more broadly than this Court reads the Federal Constitution, or to reject the mode of analysis used by this Court in favor of a different analysis of its corresponding constitutional guarantee.
*15City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., 455 U.S. 288, 293, 102 S.Ct. 1070, 1077, 71 L.Ed.2d 152 (1982).30 Indeed, the failure of a state judiciary to rely on its own constitution has appropriately been criticized for “thereby increaspng] its own burdens as well as ours.” Massachusetts v. Upton, 466 U.S. 727, 735, 104 S.Ct. 2085, 2089, 80 L.Ed.2d 721 (1984) (per curiam) (Stevens, J., concurring).31
The only limit on the states is that, in relying on their constitutions, they may not deny individuals the minimum level of protection mandated by the Federal Constitution. See Sax, 648 S.W.2d at 664 (“While it is true that state constitutional protections cannot subtract from those rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution, there certainly is no prohibition against a state providing additional rights for its citizens.”); LeCroy v. Hanlon, 713 S.W.2d at 338. This approach has been referred to as a “federal safety net,” ensuring that individuals receive all available guarantees of their rights. Shirley S. Abrahamson, Reincarnation of State Courts, 36 Sw.LJ. 951, 959 (1982).
The involvement of state courts is particularly appropriate in the protection of free speech rights. Both state and federal courts have recognized such rights “as involving community standards and local trends.” Judith S. Kaye, A Midpoint Perspective on Directions in State Constitutional Law, 1 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 17, 23 (1988). Particularly in the context of judicial proceedings, state courts have long been involved with the protection of speech rights.32 In the current case, the state interest is all the greater since at issue is the order of a Texas judge instructing members of the Texas bar and their Texan clients not to discuss a case ongoing in a Texas court with anyone.
B.
Our Texas charter bears the distinction of being one of the few state constitutions that were derived from its own independent, national constitution. See M.P. Duncan III, Terminating the Guardianship: A New Role for State Courts, 19 St. Mary’s L.J. 809, 839 (1988) (hereinafter Duncan, State Courts).33 As we empha-*16“[tjhe powers restricted and the individual rights guaranteed in the present constitution reflect Texas’ values, customs, and traditions.” 713 S.W.2d at 339. The diverse drafters of our Constitution represented a “heterogenous miscellany of opinions.” 34 The experiences and philosophies of this group were far different than those who sat in a Philadelphia meeting hall a century earlier.35 As expressed by one commentator, “[o]ur Texas Forbears surely never contemplated that the fundamental state charter, crafted after years of rugged experience on the frontier and molded after reflection on the constitutions of other states, would itself veer in meaning each time the United States Supreme Court issued a new decision.” James C. Harrington, The Texas Bill of Rights 41 (1987).36
Our state had a unique opportunity to address issues of state constitutionalism and federalism in the 1875 constitutional convention. Though some Texans feared that convening such a gathering so soon after Reconstruction would indicate too much independence from the federal government,37 the convention was held. In the election of 1873, Democrats swept most state offices, including Richard Coke as Governor. Confronting the propriety of this election in Ex Parte Rodriguez, 39 Tex. 705 (1874), the Texas Supreme Court relied primarily on federal caselaw and the placement of a semicolon to declare the election illegal under the Texas Constitution.38 The newly elected officials nonetheless came to Austin39 and enacted a constitutional amendment reorganizing the. *17Supreme Court, which enabled Governor Coke to remove all three justices.
Just as our history is distinctive in its insistence that our constitution is of independent force, so is the very letter of that fundamental document. The Texas Constitution begins with the declaration that: “Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States.” Tex.Const. art. I, § 1. Citing this article as a reason for ratifying the 1876 Constitution, Governor Coke explained that:
[T]he new constitution declares, not as does the old one, that ... the perpetuity of our free institutions depends upon the preservation unimpaired of the right of local self-government to all the States. The reassertion of these great principles of government, and the expulsion from our organic law of that insult to the intelligence of the people of Texas, which denies them the right of self-government, their heritage and birthright ... and declares them [mere] vassals and serfs of [the federal government], is worth a thousand fold the cost and effort expended in making the new constitution, even if no other changes had been made.
Address of Governor Coke, in Ratify, Galveston Daily News, Dec. 19, 1875 at 2, col. 4 (emphasis added) (hereinafter Coke Address).40 The prominent language of section one and the words of its framers clarify that our current Constitution intends to maintain the vitality and independence of our state law to the extent permissible under the Federal Constitution.
Basing decisions on the state constitution whenever possible avoids unnecessary federal review. This not only lessens federal interference into state issues, but also results in “efficient judicial management.” 41 This approach relieves the overburdened docket of the United States Supreme Court, and spares state courts from having to deal anew with cases on remand. See Upton, 466 U.S. at 735, 104 S.Ct. at 2Ó89 (Stevens, J., concurring). This efficiency is evidenced by several recent cases in which state courts decided that protection was available to an individual under the federal constitution, only to have the decision reversed by the Supreme Court.42 Justice Hans Linde, formerly of the Oregon Supreme Court, explains that in each of those cases:
[T]he state’s appellate court was convinced of an important constitutional right. In each case, that right was guaranteed by the state’s own constitution. ... [T]hese cases did not need to go to the United States Supreme Court. The Court’s nationwide pronouncement on those issues were not necessary. The cases could have ended with the state court’s decisions if the state courts had not chosen otherwise.43
Subsequently, several state courts on remand relied on state law to reach the same result originally reached under their read*18ing of the federal law.44 Such a cumbersome and time-consuming process obviously contributes little to an efficient judiciary. The soundest way to avoid such unnecessary review and delay for litigants is to rely on the state constitution in the first instance.
Once the state court turns to its own constitution, it both enables a local voice in the judicial process and ensures its role as a national leader. “State constitutions allow the people of each state to choose their own theory of government and of law, within what the nation requires, to take responsibility for their own liberties, not only in courts but in the daily practice of government.”45 A state’s constitution “is a fit place for the people of a state to record their moral values, their definition of justice, their hopes for the common good. A state constitution defines a way of life.” 46 The revival of “new federalism” has thus “returned popular constitutionalism to the American stage.” 47 State constitutions “lead all of us to face closer to home some fundamental values that the public has become accustomed to have decided for them by the faraway oracles in the marble temple.” Hans A. Linde, First Things First: Rediscovering the States’ Bills of Rights, 9 U.Balt.L.Rev. 379, 395 (1980) (hereinafter Linde, First Things First).
While reflecting local concerns and assuring local accountability, reliance by this court on our own constitution allows Texas to have a meaningful voice in developing this nation’s jurisprudence. What Justice Brandéis wrote sixty years ago regarding state legislatures is now particularly applicable to state judicial action; “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 311, 52 S.Ct. 371, 386-87, 76 L.Ed. 747 (1932) (Brandéis, J., dissenting).48 Just as other states may rely on unique Texas law developed independently by the legislature and judiciary of this state, this court has a growing responsibility as one of fifty laboratories of democracy to assist the federal courts in shaping the fundamental constitutional fabric of our country.49 The poet *19who only .quotes the works of others is destined to be both ignored and forgotten.50
As a state court, sitting in Texas, our expertise is in Texas law, our judges are Texas citizens and members of the Texas Bar, and our concerns are Texas concerns. If we simply apply federal law in all cases, why have a Texas Constitution, and why have a Texas Supreme Court? We agree that “it is fundamentally illogical for a state court to skip past guarantees provided in the state’s own law, for which the court itself is responsible, and then to conclude that its state falls short of the national standards....” Linde, New Federalism, at 256.
C.
Having concluded that there are numerous reasons why the state constitution should be applied, we are left to consider how to apply it. Today’s opinion has centered on a historical review to understand the origins of our liberties as Texans and the intentions of our forebears. This focus should not, however, be misconstrued to suggest any deviation from our traditional method of constitutional interpretation. In Edgewood Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Kirby, 777 S.W.2d 391 (Tex.1989), we outlined an appropriate approach:
In construing [a provision of the Texas Constitution], we consider “the intent of the people who adopted it.” In determining that intent, “the history of the times out of which it grew and to which it may be rationally supposed to have direct relationship, the evils intended to be remedied and the good to be accomplished, are proper subjects of the inquiry.” However, because of the difficulties inherent in determining the intent of voters over a century ago, we rely heavily on the literal text. We seek its meaning with the understanding that the Constitution was ratified to function as an organic document to govern society and institutions as they evolve through time.
Id. at 394 (citations omitted). See also Damon v. Cornett, 781 S.W.2d 597 (Tex.1989); Vinson v. Burgess, 773 S.W.2d 263 (Tex.1989).51
Our rich history demonstrates a longstanding commitment in Texas to freedom of expression as well as a determination that state constitutional guarantees be given full meaning to protect our citizens. But historical analysis is only a starting point. The constitution of our state is an organic document. Edgewood, 777 S.W.2d at 394. In no way must our understanding of its guarantees be frozen in the past; rather, our concept of freedom of expression continues to evolve over time. See id. Forms of expression not widely approved in 1875 may well demand state constitutional protection today, just as new methods of infringing on speech may require new methods of protection tomorrow.52
*20In interpreting our constitution, this state’s courts should be neither unduly active nor deferential; rather, they should be independent and thoughtful in considering the unique values, customs, and traditions of our citizens. With a strongly independent state judiciary, Texas should borrow from well-reasoned and persuasive federal procedural and substantive precedent when this is deemed helpful,53 but should never feel compelled to parrot the federal judiciary.54 With the approach we adopt, the appropriate role of relevant federal case law should be clearly noted, in accord with Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1040-41, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3476-77, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983) (presuming that a state court opinion not explicitly announcing reliance on state law is assumed to rest on reviewable federal law). A state court must definitely provide a “plain statement” that it is relying on independent and adequate state law,55 and that federal cases are cited only for guidance and do not compel the result reached. Id. at 1040-41, 103 S.Ct. at 3476-77. See also William J. Brennan, The Bill of Rights and the States: The Revival of State Constitutions as Guardians of Individual Rights, 61 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 535, 552 (1986). Long offers further reason for developing state constitutional law, since now courts, rather than merely adjudicating state constitutional claims, must be prepared to defend their integrity by both quantitatively and qualitatively supporting their opinion with state authority.” Duncan, State Courts, at 838. Consistent with this method, we may also look to helpful precedent from sister states in what New Jersey Justice Stewart Pollock has described as “horizontal federalism.” Stewart G. Pollock, Adequate and Independent State Grounds as a Means of Balancing the Relationship Between State and Federal Courts, 63 Tex.L.Rev. 977, 992 (1985).56
Our consideration of state constitutional issues is encumbered when they are not *21fully developed by counsel. Many of our sister states, when confronted with similar difficulties, have nevertheless decided cases solely on state grounds or ordered additional briefing of the state issue.57 We will follow this procedure as necessary and appropriate, when asserted state grounds have not been adequately briefed.58
D.
Rejecting our careful and detailed analysis of the development and interpretation of article one, section eight, the concurrence advances an alternative — Texas judges should follow, but never lead, federal jurisprudence. Whenever both federal and state constitutional provisions “overlap or correspond,” 834 S.W.2d at 40, the Texas judge should never diverge from the path taken by the federal judiciary. No aspect of Texas history, no series of Texas decisions such as that present here should obscure the obligation of adherence to federal authority.
Texans, we are told, must journey along the “well-traveled road of [federal constitutional] jurisprudence.” Id. at 29. “[I]t is inefficient to blaze a trail through the wilderness when there is a perfectly good highway there already, built at considerable expense, and well traveled.” Id. at 40. A traveller relying upon the concurrence’s map will, however, find considerable detail missing — the road is marred with chu-gholes; unmarked detours appear; new roadblocks arise. The most crucial part of the route is just a dotted line where road construction has not yet even gotten underway. Viewed from this jurisprudential federal interstate charted by the concurrence, the history of the Texas Constitution is a mere farm to market road; the past decisions of this court, only undistinguished country lanes.
The fallacy in the concurrence’s roadwork is shown by both the federal law upon which it relies59 and the state law upon which it does not. Because a prior restraint of the type involved here has not previously been the subject of an adequate pronouncement from Washington, the concurrence must search elsewhere for the federal mandate by which all Texans are to be bound. Its dim new travel beacon is Bernard v. Gulf Oil Co., 619 F.2d 459, 467 (5th Cir.1980) (en banc), aff'd on other grounds, 452 U.S. 89, 101 S.Ct. 2193, 68 L.Ed.2d 693 (1981). Described by the concurrence as “[t]he principal authority applicable],” 834 S.W.2d at 26, Bernard today achieves a renown which it has not previously enjoyed. Nevertheless, we learn much from carefully reviewing it. The complexity and unpredictability of federal law reflected in Bernard is evidenced by the fact that the relevant issue there was initially decided the opposite way,60 was reconsidered in part because no other federal appellate court had ever ruled on it,61 was decided on a very splintered vote, and thereafter disregarded by the United States Supreme Court.62 On only three occasions have even the federal courts extracted a test from Bernard.63 Solely by *22the most particularized selection of some of the many considerations in that procedurally unique case can the concurrence begin to construct the elements of a test having remote similarity with that we adopt today.
The concurring justices recite a method for interpretation of our state constitutional guarantees that closely parallels our traditional approach in Edgewood and other cases64 with one notable twist. They add an entirely new element65 and then proceed to reject each factor with the exception of this one new arrival — federal precedent.66 Although differences in the language of the state and federal constitutional free speech provisions are declared to be as “plain as day,” 834 S.W.2d at 32, those differences are repudiated as meaningless.
Despite the purported need to look to the historical context in which the provision was written, the concurrence trivializes the rather extensive historical discussion which we offer.67 Prom our treasured state heritage, law and institutions, the concurrence claims, we can derive nothing. Only federal law, based on different language, different history and different cases, can resolve the issue we face today.
Our attempt to give effect to what is indelibly written into our state constitution is dismissed in a series of buzzwords: “chauvinism,” “arrogan[ce]” “autonomy,” and “liberal agenda.” Id. at 41, 43, 39 & 43. Instead, the concurrence urges that we exclude any considerations specific to Texas in favor of conformity to a federal standard. Claiming that Texas was never “unique nor first,” id. at 33, the concurrence accuses the court of disrupting the harmony among the states regarding free speech nationwide. Id. at 25. We do not say that the Texas guarantee of free expression inevitably varies in all particulars from the federal, or that of New York or California. Rather, consistent with the very diversity that supplies strength to our union, we build from experience in Texas and elsewhere to enhance individual liberty. The national jurisprudence benefits as states across our country offer similar contributions. As individual voices develop strength and tone, so does the grand chorus ijmprove.
After ignoring all that is unique to Texas, the concurring justices repeatedly accuse the court of disregarding relevant federal law when we quite obviously do not. Id. at 25, 35 & 38-39. Federal decisions are potentially helpful but do not inextricably bind Texas in analyzing our constitution. Failing to differentiate between thoughtful review and unquestioning acceptance of federal rulings, the concurrence also mistakenly assumes that independent interpretation must necessarily yield a different result than that achieved by the federal judiciary. This, of course, is not true. Our investigation may reveal federal authority so complete, so well reasoned, and so consistent with the provisions of the Texas Constitution in protecting individual liberties that we reach the same conclusion. Certainly there may be some “congruence” between state and federal constitutions. Id. at 34. First Amendment jurisprudence is not irrelevant, but rather *23an important body of law to be referenced when well-reasoned.
The concurrence next suggests that the record in this case does not support extensive writing on our state constitutional free speech guarantee.68 All of this masks a very simple truth — if the parties here had dealt exclusively and extensively with the development and scope of our Texas Constitution, if they had “fully presented” it, the court would still be chastised for relying upon a state provision that has not “grown and developed over time,” id. at 30, and that represents “largely uncharted terrain.” Id. at 29. Even with the most completely briefed and argued cause, the concurrence would still seek marching orders from the federal judiciary. We prefer self-reliance. What we accept today is the responsibility to conduct a thoughtful, complete, and independent search for a sound understanding of our most fundamental state law.
III. The Court Records
Relator contends that she and several parents were denied access to the records in this case after the gag order went into effect. She argues that this constitutes an unwritten sealing order, in violation of Rules 76 and 76a of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. One such parent whose child was not represented by the principal plaintiffs’ attorneys, Akins and Pettiette, was repeatedly told by a court clerk the file was “sealed” and that “the Judge had put a gag order on the file.” Affidavit of Cheryl Finley. Another parent swore that he was told by Judge Garcia personally that the record was “closed until after the settlement hearing.” Affidavit of Larry Carter. The co-owner of a community newspaper indicates that she and the paper’s editor were told by a court clerk that the record was “sealed.” Affidavit of Marie Flickinger. The former Official Court Reporter for the 151st District Court in Harris County explained that a local reporter had requested access to the transcript of a hearing which considered whether the firm which would potentially administer a settlement had acted improperly. Affidavit of Jacquelyn Miles. When the Court Reporter told the court about this request, “Judge Garcia informed [her] that the file was sealed to members of the general public until after the settlement had been finalized.” Id.69
The Real Parties in Interest, Joseph Edward Powell and Farm & Home Savings Association respond that Judge Garcia never ordered the file sealed. They present an affidavit from the Clerk of the 151st District Court which maintains that “there is no order sealing this file by Judge Garcia,” and also that “Judge Garcia has not told me that access to this file is restricted, nor, to my knowledge, has she told anyone else that access to this file is restricted.” Affidavit of Chris Sarrat. A parent of one of the children represented by Akins and Pet-tiette also states that Judge Garcia never represented to her that the files were sealed, and that she was never prohibited from looking at the court’s file. Affidavit of Janice Villanueva.
Court records “are presumed to be open to the general public.” Tex.R.Civ.P. *2476a(l), and access to them is separately guaranteed to “[e]ach attorney at law practicing in any court ... at all reasonable times to inspect.” Tex.R.Civ.P. 76. The sealing of a record must meet the procedural prerequisites set forth in Rule 76a of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. See Chandler v. Hyundai Motor Co., 829 S.W.2d 774 (1992) (per curiam). A court may not escape the strict obligations of those rules by tacitly closing the record through an unwritten order.
In this instance, however, we are presented with conflicting affidavits as to whether the court records were made available to the public. These affidavits create a fact issue which this court may not address on mandamus. See Brady v. Fourteenth Court of Appeals, 795 S.W.2d 712, 714 (Tex.1990, orig. proceeding). Additionally, it is the understanding of this court that with the gag order lifted, there should be no impediment to viewing the court records. If, after this opinion issues, Relator should find her access to the records in any way obstructed, she remains free to pursue appropriate remedies.
IV. Removal of the Guardian ad Litem
Relator also urges that she was improperly dismissed as ad litem. While much has been written about the standards for such appointments, there is little guidance on the standard for removal. Relator contends that the appropriate standard is one based on best interest of the child, and the record reveals that Relator may well have acted in that interest, sometimes bringing issues to the court’s attention which might not have otherwise been considered. Under the Probate Code a “best interest of the ward” standard is applied in determining the circumstances under which a guardianship can be moved to another county and a guardian replaced. Tex.Prob.Code § 123. Other states have applied a similar standard to removal of ad litems in general.70
Under our current procedural rules, however, the sole circumstance in which a guardian ad litem can be appointed is when a minor “is represented by a next friend or guardian who appears to the courts to have an interest adverse to such minor. ” Tex. R.Civ.P. 173 (emphasis added). This rule as written seems to contemplate only a conflict of interest standard.
Since the trial court’s September 1991 dismissal order specifically determined that there was “no conflict of interest,” and since the record reflects no such conflict, we find no abuse of discretion.
Summary
We grant Relator’s petition in part and hold that the trial court’s gag order is in violation of article I, section 8, of the Texas Constitution. Because the existence of an unwritten sealing order raises a fact issue, we do not address that question. Finally, we determine that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing Relator as ad litem, and deny the remainder of Relator’s petition.
Concurring Opinion by HECHT, J., joined by COOK and CORNYN, JJ. PHILLIPS, C.J., not sitting.. The constitution now explicitly protects Texans’ "right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good; and apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances or other purposes, by petition, address or remonstrance.” Tex. Const, art. I, § 27.
. Joseph W. McKnight, Stephen Austin’s Legalistic Concerns, 89 Sw.Hist.Q. 239, 246-47, 263-64 (1986).
. Eugene C. Barker, Stephen F. Austin, in The Handbook of Texas 84 (Walter Prescott Webb ed. 1952); Robert E. Hall, Remonstrance — Citizen’s Weapon Against Government’s Indifference, 68 Tex.L.Rev. 1409, 1417, 1421 (1990) (hereinafter Hall, Remonstrance).
. See Hall, Remonstrance, at 1412-21; Robert A. Calvert and Arnoldo De Leon, The History of Texas 56-58 (1990); John Sayles, Introduction to Texas Constitutions 129-35 (4th ed. 1893); T.R. Fehrenbach, Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico 378-379 (1973); Arvel Ponton III, Sources of Liberty in the Texas Bill of Rights, 20 St. Mary’s L.J. 93, 100 (1988) (hereinafter Pon-ton, Sources of Liberty ).
.Lorenzo de Zavala had ample reason to be concerned with freedom of expression at the time of his drafting substantial portions of the 1836 Constitution. He was in hiding from a wide-scale manhunt ordered by Santa Anna because of his letters and speeches criticizing the Mexican government. Raymond Estep, Lorenzo de Zavala and the Texas Revolution, 57 Sw. Hist.Q. 322 (1954). See also Calvert & De Leon at 65.
. The decision of the delegates to replace the 1836 language with the free speech provision of the Tennessee Constitution was later reversed. Journals of the Convention 74-75 (1845), reprinted in Journals of the Convention (Shoal Creek Publishers 1974).
. Not even conventional limits on free speech curbed the sweeping scope of the free speech guarantee; the delegates defeated a provision to deem libelous speech injurious to female reputation, without inquiry into its truth. Ponton, Sources of Liberty, at 106 n. 102, quoting Debates of the 1845 Constitutional Convention 94 (1846).
. As the break with the Union loomed, Governor Sam Houston and others argued for independence rather than alliance with the Confederacy. Mark E. Nackman, A Nation Within A Nation: The Rise of Texas Nationalism 127-31 (1975).
. See infra, text accompanying notes 38-41.
. The Convention and its Work, Galveston Daily News, Aug. 24, 1875 at 1, col. 2. (“to agree upon ... the Bill of Rights, ought not to be difficult. There is nothing new in the fundamental province of reason and conscience and justice.”). This newspaper’s reports of the 1875 convention are significant not only as the report of the leading paper in one of the state's first major cities, but also because it printed bulk copies of the constitution and the official journal of the convention.
. The first report of the Bill of Rights committee “[found] the members discordant." Second Dispatch, Galveston Daily News, Sept. 15, 1875 at 1, col. 4.
. Constitutional Convention, Forty-Third Day, Galveston Daily News, Oct. 23, 1875 at 1, col. 3.
. See Journal of the Constitutional Convention 62 (1875) (proposal of Delegate Brady). Like the First Amendment, this proposal was framed purely as a negative restriction on enactment of laws restraining speech. Along with other proposals, it was rejected in favor of including an affirmative grant of the liberty to speak and publish. See Galveston Daily News, Oct. 13, 1875 at 1, col. 3 (recording the rejection of an *9alternative free speech provision in favor of the language of the 1845 Constitution).
. This condemnation of prior restraints is understandable:
Prior restraints fall on speech with a brutality and a finality all their own_ [T]he violator of a statute punishing speech criminally knows that he will go before a jury, and may be willing to take his chance, counting on a possible acquittal. A prior restraint, therefore, stops more speech more effectively. A criminal statute chills, prior restraint freezes.
Alexander M. Bickel, The Morality of Consent 61 (1975).
. See, e.g., Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 569, 62 S.Ct. 766, 768, 86 L.Ed. 1031 (1942) (upholding conviction of a Jehovah's Witness for calling a city marshal a “damned fascist” and a "racketeer”).
. Concerned that public prejudice could prevent impanelling of a jury, a trial judge issued an order restraining the news media from publishing any information about a murder suspect in Nebraska Press Ass’n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. at 542-43, 96 S.Ct. at 2794-95. The United States Supreme Court invalidated the order as an unconstitutional prior restraint, noting that: (1) the underlying basis was too speculative; (2) less restrictive alternatives were not investigated; (3) no evidence was presented that the prior restraint would have in fact achieved its purpose; and (4) the order was overbroad. Id. at 562-69, 96 S.Ct. at 2804-08. These conclusions are quite fact specific, id. at 569, 96 S.Ct. at 2807, and thus only serve to reinforce a presumption that prior restraints, including those directed at media publication, are unconstitutional.
In Bernard v. Gulf Oil Co., 619 F.2d 459 (5th Cir.1980), the federal authority upon which the concurrence rests almost its entire analysis, the trial judge prohibited the plaintiffs and their attorneys in a class action from communicating with any potential class members without court approval. The Fifth Circuit held that, in the context of Rule 23(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the order was violative of the First Amendment. Id. at 475-78.
The majority recognized that as to the first prong of its test, "[a]t least three [Supreme Court] justices may have rejected even that standard as overly lenient." Id. at 473. A concurrence characterized the "majority's first amendment analysis [as a] needless excursion into a difficult and little-explored area of constitutional law.” Id. at 481 (Tjoflat, J., concurring). If anything, the admittedly unsettled nature of the federal law reflected in these writings supports development of an independent standard under the Texas Constitution. See also infra, text accompanying notes 59-63.
. The only other factors to be considered under Nebraska Press are the extent of pretrial news coverage and the effectiveness of the restraining order. We note that to the extent that this opinion cites any federal law, such precedent is used only for guidance, and in no way necessitates the result reached by this court today.
. That standard has been largely developed in the context of criminal rather than civil proceedings, weighing the press’ First Amendment rights against an accused’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial. See Sheryl A. Bjork, Comment, Indirect Gag Orders and the Doctrine of Prior Restraint, 44 U. Miami L.Rev. 165, 166 (1989). For instance, the first element in this test, the extent of pretrial news coverage, usually has little bearing on a civil proceeding.
. Nebraska Press, a splintered decision with five separate opinions, has been appropriately criticized for failing to provide a comprehensive guarantee of free expression. See Stephen R. Barnett, The Puzzle of Prior Restraint, 29 Stan. L.Rev. 539, 541 (1977); Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., Nebraska Press Association: An Expansion of Freedom and Contraction of Theory, 29 Stan. L.Rev. 431, 461 (1977). Nor are we the first state to recognize the inadequacy of the federal approach. See State v. Coe, 101 Wash.2d 364, 679 P.2d 353, 358-59 (1984). See also infra, note 32.
.Neither Nebraska Press nor any other ruling of the United States Supreme Court has specifically considered such an order. Indeed, there is a confusing split of federal authority on this matter. See In re Dow Jones, 842 F.2d 603, 608-10 (2d.Cir.), cert, denied, sub nom. Dow Jones & Co., Inc. v. Simon, 488 U.S. 946, 109 S.Ct. 377, 102 L.Ed.2d 365 (1988) (gag orders on trial participants are subject to a lesser degree of scrutiny than are prior restraints); In re Russell, 726 F.2d 1007, 1010 (4th Cir.1984) (relying on Nebraska Press to uphold a gag order on trial participants); but see Journal Publishing Co. v. Mechem, 801 F.2d 1233, 1236 (10th Cir.1986) (gag orders on trial participants constitute prior restraint). The end result has been an increase in the number of gag orders on parties to ongoing litigation. Bjork, Indirect Gag Orders, at 174 & n. 71.
. From 1970 to 1989, approximately six hundred published opinions relied on state constitutional grounds to provide protections broader than federally interpreted guarantees under the United States Constitution. Linda B. Matarese, Other Voices: The Role of Justices Durham, Kaye and Abrahamson in Shaping the "New Judicial Federalism”, 2 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 239, 246 (1989).
. See Peter J. Galie, State Supreme Courts, Judicial Federalism and the Other Constitutions, 71 Judicature 100, 100 n. 10 (1987) (of approximately three hundred articles, "all but a handful are favorable.”); Judith S. Kaye, A Midpoint Perspective on Directions in State Constitutional Law, 1 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 17, 17 (1988).
Many of the articles listed by the concurrence as opposed “to this method in fact support judicial reliance on state constitutions. See, e.g., Robert F. Utter, Swimming in the Jaws of the Crocodile: State Court Comment on Federal Constitutional Issues when Disposing of Cases on State Constitutional Grounds, 63 Tex.L.Rev. 1025, 1050 (1985) (hereinafter Utter, State Court Comment) (while noting the usefulness of "comment” on federal law, concluding that "a state supreme court should ... embark upon the interpretation of its own constitution, relying on it to protect the rights of its citizens”); Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., First Things Last: Amen-domania and State Bills of Rights, 54 Miss. L.Rev. 233, 257 (1984) (describing as "alarming” the attempt "to curtail state court protection of individual rights”); Robert F. Williams, State Constitutional Law Process, 24 Wm. & Mary L.Rev. 169, 190 (1983) (urging state courts “to develop truly independent state constitutional jurisprudence”); Developments in the Law — The Interpretation of State Constitutional Rights, 95 Harv.L.Rev. 1324, 1498 (1982) ("It is vital that the [United States] Supreme Court's interpretation of the federal Constitution control federal constitutional law; it is not only unnecessary but also irrational that it control state law as well.”); Ronald K.L. Collins, Commentary, Reliance on State Constitutions — Away from a Reactionary Approach, 9 Hastings Const. L.Q. 1, 2 (1981) (the "rediscovery of state constitutions is certainly a good omen for a nation conceived in federalism"); Martha Craig Daughtrey, State Court Activism and Other Symptoms of the New Federalism, 45 Tenn.L.Rev. 731, 736 (1978) (praising the "growing number of high state courts” that have accorded broader protections than are available under the federal Constitution). See also infra, notes 33 & 36.
.See, e.g., City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., 455 U.S. 283, 293, 102 S.Ct. 1070, 1076, 71 L.Ed.2d 152 (1982) (acknowledging that the Texas Constitution could provide broader protections than federal Constitution); Carreras v. City of Anaheim, 768 F.2d 1039, 1042-43 (9th Cir. 1985) (finding a restraining order overbroad under the California Constitution). Farmers New World Life Ins. Co. v. Bountiful City, 803 P.2d 1241 (Utah 1990) (looking to federal law only after finding no inverse condemnation under the state constitution); Mountain States Tel. & Tel Co. v. Arizona Corp. Comm'n, 160 Ariz. 350, 773 P.2d 455, 461 (1989); In re T.W., 551 So.2d 1186, 1190 (Fla. 1989); O'Neill v. Oakgrove Constr., 71 N.Y.2d 521, 528 N.Y.S.2d 1, 6, 523 N.E.2d 277, 282 (1988) (Kaye, J., concurring); State v. Jewett, 146 Vt. 221, 500 A.2d 233, 238 (1985) (federal law considered but required briefing of the state constitutional issue before the case could be decided); State v. Koppel, 127 N.H. 286, 499 A.2d 977, 979 (1985); State v. Beno, 116 Wis.2d 122, 341 N.W.2d 668 (1984) (following the state constitution even though recognizing the existence of a closely corresponding federal speech and debate clause found in U.S. Const. Art. 1, § 6, cl. 1); People v. Rolfingsmeyer, 101 I11.2d 137, 77 Ill.Dec. 787, 790-92, 461 N.E.2d 410, 413-15 (1984) (Simon, J., concurring); State v. Hunt, 91 N.J. 338, 450 A.2d 952, 959 (1982) (Pashman, J., concurring); Ravin v. State, 537 P.2d 494, 513-15 (Alaska 1975) (Boochever, J., concurring); Burrows v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County, 13 Cal.3d 238, 118 Cal.Rptr. 166,. 529 P.2d 590 (1975); Freedman v. New Jersey State Police, 135 N.J.Super. 297, 343 A.2d 148, 150 (1975); William J. Brennan, Jr., The Bill of Rights and the States: The Revival of State Constitutions as Guardians of Individual Rights, 61 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 535 (1986) (hereinafter Brennan, Revival of *13State Constitutions)-, Stewart G. Pollock, Adequate and Independent State Grounds as a Means of Balancing the Relationship Between State and Federal Courts, 63 Tex.L.Rev. 977 (1985) (hereinafter Pollock, Independent State Grounds); Hans A. Linde, E Pluribus — Constitutional Theory and State Courts, 18 Ga.L.Rev. 165 (1983) (hereinafter Linde, E Pluribus); Hans A. Linde, First Things First: Rediscovering the State's Bills of Rights, 9 U.Balt.L.Rev. 379, 383 (1980). See also Commonwealth v. Edmunds, 526 Pa. 374, 586 A.2d 887, 894, 903 (1991) (looking to federal law first but then relying on the state constitution); State v. Larocco, 794 P.2d 460 (Utah 1990) (federal law examined but rejected as inadequate); City of Hillsboro v. Purcell, 306 Or. 547, 761 P.2d 510 (1988) (discussing federal law but then deciding the case under the state constitution); Colorado Civil Rights Comm’n v. Traveler's Ins. Co., 759 P.2d 1358, 1362-63 (Colo.1988) (reversing the lower court for relying on federal law when the state constitution contained unique provisions).
.In 1889, for instance, this court applied the state constitution to protect non-residents from wage garnishment, concluding that ‘‘[w]e do not consider it necessary to discuss the effect which the adoption of the Fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States had with reference to state statutes discriminating in favor of its own citizens." Bell v. Indian LiveStock Co., 11 S.W. 344, 345 (Tex.1889).
. The experience of finding state constitutionally guaranteed free speech prior to the application of the First Amendment to the states was shared by many sister states. See Utter, State Court Comment, at 1033 (free speech rights "received attention in state courts before their interpretation by the federal courts.”). The First Amendment was not applied to the states until Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652, 45 S.Ct. 625, 69 L.Ed. 1138 (1925), and prior restraints were not considered in the context of gag orders until Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697, 51 S.Ct. 625, 75 L.Ed. 1357 (1931). Twenty-eight years earlier, a Texas court had addressed the issue of gag orders in Ex Parte Foster, 71 S.W. 593.
. This approach was again applied to invalidate a similar statute in Nelson v. Krusen, 678 S.W.2d 918, 921 (Tex.1984) ("Our disposition of the Nelson’s open courts argument makes consideration of the other constitutional claims unnecessary.").
. The recent increase in cases by this court which rely solely on the Texas Constitution has received national attention. See Ken Gormley, Significant Developments in State Constitutional Law, 2 Emerging Issues in St. ConstL. 1, 29 (1989).
What the concurrence really urges today is that we overrule the enlightened thinking of LeCroy regarding the “independent vitality” of our constitution and discard an entire series of rulings by this court.
. See also Whitworth v. Bynum, 699 S.W.2d 194, 197 (Tex.1985) (“[h]aving decided the statute to be unconstitutional under the Texas Constitution," the court found addressing the federal constitutional question unnecessary); Hajek v. Bill Mowbray Motors, Inc., 647 S.W.2d 253 (Tex. 1983) (per curiam) (relying solely on the Texas Constitution to invalidate a temporary injunction against driving a car with a lemon painted on it and a message disparaging the dealership which sold the car, and reversing a court of appeals opinion which relied solely on federal law).
. See also, Olson v. State, 484 S.W.2d 756, 762 (Tex.Crim.App. 1972) (opinion on motion for rehearing) ("as to the true scope of the Texas Constitution, we must ultimately follow our own lights”).
. See also Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 347-48, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 3010-11, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974) (explicitly leaving the states free to develop their own standard of liability for a publisher of defamatory falsehoods about private individuals); Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665, 706, 92 S.Ct. 2646, 2669, 33 L.Ed.2d 626 (1972) (‘It goes without saying, of course, that we are powerless to bar state courts from responding in their own way and construing their own constitutions so as to recognize a newsman’s privilege.”). The concurrence, though urging adherence to federal precedent, fails to acknowledge that the federal courts have encouraged state courts to embark upon independent analysis of their own constitutions.
. See also People v. Scott, 79 N.Y.2d 474, 505, 583 N.Y.S.2d 920, 939, 593 N.E.2d 1328, 1347 (1992) (Kaye, J., concurring) ('Time and time again in recent years, the Supreme Court as well as its individual Justices have reminded state courts not merely of their right but also of their responsibility to interpret their own constitu-tions_”); Stanley H. Friedelbaum, Supreme Courts in Conflict: The Drama of Disagreement, 17 Intergovernmental Perspective 27, 27 (1991) (the renewed emphasis on state constitutional law met with broad approval from all members of the U.S. Supreme Court).
. See, e.g., Barron v. Florida Freedom Newspapers, Inc., 531 So.2d 113 (Fla.1988) (dissolving a protective order in a marital dissolution proceeding primarily on state constitutional grounds); State v. Coe, 101 Wash.2d 364, 679 P.2d 353 (1984) (trial court order restraining the press violates the state constitution); State ex ret Herald Mail Co. v. Hamilton, 165 W.Va. 103, 267 S.E.2d 544 (1980) (relying on the state constitution to disallow a trial court order closing the court during portions of the pretrial of a minder case.); Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. v. Superior Court, 101 Ariz. 257, 418 P.2d 594 (1966) (striking down prior restraint against press reporting); Dailey v. Superior Court, 112 Cal. 94, 44 P. 458 (1896) (voiding injunction against performance of play depicting story of case then on trial).
."No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning. For every constitution there is an epic_” Robert M. Cover, Foreword: Nomos and Narrative, 97 Harv.L.Rev. 4, 4 (1983).
The opposite view taken by the concurrence receives support from Professor Gardner, who argues that "Americans are now a people who are so alike from state to state; and whose identity is so much associated with national values and institutions, that the notion of significant local variations in character and identity is just too implausible to take seriously.” James *16A. Gardner, The Failed Discourse of State Constitutionalism, 90 Mich.L.Rev. 761, 818 (1992) (hereinafter Gardner, Failed Discourse). He adds his “belief’ that "few Americans identify themselves with a community purporting to embrace an entire state.” Id. at 835. When contrasted with the just pride that our citizens feel in being Texans, perhaps this very writing by an Associate Professor at the Western New England College School of Law demonstrates how truly diverse this nation remains. Texans value our institutions and heritage, and our citizens would certainly dispute that their concerns are identical to those of the people of Rhode Island or North Dakota. Unlike the concurrence, we share the view of Woodrow Wilson, who observed that ours is "a singularly various country.” Woodrow Wilson, The Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson 130-31 (E. David Cronon, ed. 1965) (hereinafter Woodrow Wilson, Political Thought).
. The Constitutional Convention, Galveston Daily News, May 14, 1875 at 1, col. 1.
. For discussions of some of those differences, see Ponton, Sources of Liberty; James C. Harrington, Reemergence of Texas Constitutional Protection, 2 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 101, 106 & n. 22 (1989).
. The few existing critics of state constitutionalism, see supra, note 22, have challenged the legitimacy of those constitutions on the basis that they actually lack meaningful, independent identities. See generally, Gardner, Failed Discourse. Gardner suggests that:
If we are to take seriously the notion that the state constitution reveals the character of the people, we may be forced to the unappetizing conclusion that the people of New York, or California, or Texas are simply a frivolous people who are unable to distinguish between things that are truly important and things that are not.... A people who are frivolous, or fickle, or unreflective, are a people not worthy of respect.
Id. at 819-20 (emphasis added). He continues that ”[t]he stories to which [state constitutions] lend themselves are not stories of principle and integrity, but stories of expediency and compromise at best, foolishness and inconstancy at worst.” Id. at 822. Rather than lending credence to this position with a lengthy response, we let our opinion today stand as an example of the effective role that a carefully crafted and well-grounded state constitution can play. To accept the proposition that our constitution is simply a thing of frivolity is to erase well over a century of history and of law as well as to undermine the very foundation of this court.
. Having a constitutional convention "without consulting the national authority” might give the United States Congress "a pretext to charge us with bad faith, with a violation of the conditions upon which the Reconstruction laws were declared inoperative,” wrote one Waco citizen. Galveston Daily News, Jan. 8, 1874 at 2, col. 6.
. Earning the nickname of the "Semicolon Court,” Calvert & De Leon at 146, the court was harshly attacked:
[T]he rule is ... imperative that constitutions and statutes are to be liberally and scrupulously construed with reference to that supreme consideration — the free and effective expression of the will of the body of electors. A Principle That Should Govern, Galveston Daily News, Jan. 3, 1874 at 1, col. 1 (emphasis added).
. Galveston Daily News, Jan. 14, 1874, at 1, col. 2.
.Delegate Flournoy echoed these sentiments. In describing the former section one, which allowed the state to change its laws only "subject to the national authority,” he stated:
[It] embrace[d] in the constitution a mere useless insult to the great mass of the people of Texas, but also ... assert[ed] a fundamental principle of government utterly at war with the whole theory of American republicanism. ...
[I]t is an abandonment of the elementary law of State government in this Union to place the right of local self government subject to the national authority_ [T]o declare that the national authority (which means, if anything, the party temporarily in power) shall authorize or inhibit the people of Texas from managing their local affairs is a step toward centralism ... further than the people of any State have ever dreamed of going.
Address of Delegate Flournoy, in Ratify, Galveston Daily News, Dec. 19, 1875, at 2, col. 5.
. Pollock, Independent State Grounds, at 984 (1985).
. See Hans A. Linde, Does the "New Federalism” Have a Future?, 4 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 251, 252-53 (1991) (hereinafter Linde, New Federalism).
. Id. at 253.
. See, e.g., White v. State, 521 S.W.2d 255 (Tex. Crim.App.1974), rev'd, 423 U.S. 67, 96 S.Ct. 304, 46 L.Ed.2d 209 (1975), on remand, 543 S.W.2d 366 (Tex.Crim.App. 1976) (noting that search was invalid under state constitution, but that the argument was waived); State v. Hershberger, 444 N.W.2d 282 (Minn.1989), vacated, 495 U.S. 901, 110 S.Ct. 1918, 109 L.Ed.2d 282 (1990), on remand, 462 N.W.2d 393 (Minn.1990) (finding slow-moving vehicle sign requirement on Amish carriages in violation of state free exercise rights); Upton, 466 U.S. 727, 104 S.Ct. 2085, on remand, Commonwealth v. Upton, 394 Mass. 363, 476 N.E.2d 548 (1985); State v. Kennedy, 295 Or. 260, 666 P.2d 1316 (1983) (affirming criminal conviction despite prosecutorial misconduct under state constitution on remand from the Supreme Court); State v. Opperman, 89 S.D. 25, 228 N.W.2d 152 (1975), rev’d, 428 U.S. 364, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976), on remand, 247 N.W.2d 673 (S.D.1976) (finding a search unconstitutional under state law).
. Linde, E Pluribus, at 199.
. A.E. Dick Howard, The Renaissance of State Constitutional Law, 1 Emerging Issues in St. Const.L. 1, 14 (1988).
. Ronald K.L. Collins, Forward, Reliance on State Constitutions — Beyond the "New Federalism", 8 U. Puget Sound L.Rev. vi, xi (1985). One example of this popular constitutionalism is Hewitt v. Saif, 294 Or. 33, 653 P.2d 970, 975 (1982), which declined to follow federal equal protection analysis because it involved "outmoded” national stereotypes of the roles of men and women which were no longer applicable in Oregon.
. As one former president observed;
We know that ... it would be folly to apply uniform rules of development to all parts of the country, that our strength has been in the elasticity of our institutions, in the almost infinite adaptability of our laws, that our vitality has consisted largely in the dispersion of political authority, in the necessity that communities should take care of themselves and work out their own order and progress.” Woodrow Wilson, Political Thought, at 130-31.
. Federalism is not a one-way street. Just as we have sometimes looked to federal law for guidance, the United States Supreme Court has in the past looked to state constitutional jurisprudence in developing its own law. In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), the court applied the approach of several state courts to race-based peremptory challenges, noting that at least two federal courts of appeal had already ”follow[ed] *19the lead of a number of state courts construing their State’s Constitution." Id. at 82 n. 1, 106 S.Ct. at 1715 n. 1. See also Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 651, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 1689, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) (holding evidence seized in violation of the federal constitution inadmissible, and noting that over half the states had already adopted this approach).
.One of the few possible criticisms of reliance on state constitutions is the notion that a crisis in national stability will result. See Gardner, Failed Discourse, at 818, 827 (raising the specter of the Civil War and of the breakup of the former Soviet Union). The approach we utilize today has not before and will not contribute to the demise of this nation, for Texas and other states have long applied different laws, yet the Union survives. Diversity is precisely what our federalism intends, even though the result is sometimes "untidy.” Pollock, Independent State Grounds, at 979. Even our system of lawyer licensing recognizes the need for attorneys to be expert in the law of their own state. If our sole, supreme value were uniformity, this court could close its doors, and Texas attorneys could simply take a federal bar examination.
. See also LeCroy, 713 S.W.2d at 339; Sax v. Votteler, 648 S.W.2d 661; In re Baby McLean, 725 S.W.2d at 698 (concluding that because the Texas Equal Rights Amendment of 1972 was worded differently than the earlier enacted federal provision, it may have intended different results).
. Our analysis of the history of Texas and its constitution thus in no way detracts either from the dignity of the text itself or from the realities of the present. Rather, we use history to assist in an understanding of the generalities and ambiguities sometimes present in a constitution.
. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Edmunds, 526 Pa. 374, 586 A.2d 887, 895 (1991) (federal precedent may be cited, but it is not binding on the state court). As Justice Brennan summarized this approach:
[S]tate court judges ... do well to scrutinize constitutional decisions by federal courts, for only if they are found to be logically persuasive and well-reasoned, paying due regard to precedent and the policies underlying specific constitutional guarantees, may they properly claim persuasive weight as guideposts when interpreting counterpart state guarantees.
William J. Brennan, State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 489, 502 (1977).
. “We do not think that an opinion, even though it be by the Supreme Court of the United States," which improperly disregards the rights of Texans, should “he ‘seriously regarded' by the courts of Texas.” Kemper v. State, 63 Tex.Cr.R. 1, 138 S.W. 1025, 1044-45 (App.1911) (rejecting the federal rule allowing introduction at trial of evidence obtained at a preliminary investigation from an unavailable witness). In reconsidering and overruling the substantive ride of Kemper in Robertson v. State, 63 Tex.Cr.R. 216, 142 S.W. 533 (App.1912), the Court of Criminal Appeals did not simply “defer[ ] to the Supreme Court’s interpretation," 834 S.W.2d at 41, but rather relied on the particular state constitutional language involved and considered rulings in other state and federal courts. Louisiana, also following this approach, rejected federal equal protection analysis because *‘[t]he federal three level system is in disarray and has failed to provide a theoretically sound framework for constitutional adjudication.” Sibley v. Bd. of Supervisors of Louisiana State University, 477 So.2d 1094, 1107 (La.1985) (plurality opinion).
. For various attempts at an adequate “plain statement,” see Long v. State, 742 S.W.2d 302, 323 n. 22 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) (en banc); State v. Kennedy, 295 Or. 260, 666 P.2d 1316, 1321 (1983); State v. Ball, 124 N.H. 226, 471 A.2d 347, 352 (1983). See also supra, note 17.
. See, e.g., Strahler v. St. Luke’s Hosp., 706 S.W.2d 7, 10-11 (Mo.1986) (en banc) (following this court’s methodology and result in Sax in striking down a statute of limitations under the Missouri Constitution); Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Arizona Corp. Comm’n, 160 Ariz. 350, 773 P.2d 455, 460 (1989) (following the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ approach in McCormick and Foster in striking down prior restraints against newspapers under their own state constitution); Coleman v. Utah State Land Bd., 795 P.2d 622, 632 n. 2 (Utah 1990) (looking to other states’ constitutions to help determine whether the Utah Constitution’s provisions are self-executing); Horton v. Meskill, 172 Conn. 615, 376 A.2d 359, 373 (1977) (examining the law of other states rather than the Supreme Court’s opinion in San Antonio Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973), in striking down state’s school financing).
. See Barrio v. San Manuel Div. Hosp., 143 Ariz. 101, 692 P.2d 280, 283 (1984); Gray v. Dep't of Employment Sec., 681 P.2d 807, 825 n. 2 (Utah 1984) (Durham, J., concurring and dissenting); State v. Opperman, 247 N.W.2d 673 (S.D.1976). For cases which ordered further briefing, see State v. Jewett, 146 Vt. 221, 500 A.2d 233, 234 (1985); State v. Kennedy, 295 Or. 260, 666 P.2d 1316, 1321 (1983).
. Legal academia may have unwittingly contributed to the common failure of counsel to brief thoroughly state constitutional issues by sometimes viewing them as the ‘bush league of constitutional law." Linde, New Federalism, at 251.
. See supra, notes 16, 19 & 20.
. Bernard v. Gulf Oil Co., 596 F.2d 1249 (1979), reversed in part, 619 F.2d 459.
. 619 F.2d at 466.
. The Supreme Court declined to "decide what standards are mandated by the First Amendment in this kind of case.” 452 U.S. at 104, 101 S.Ct. at 2201-02.
.See Kleiner v. First Nat. Bank of Atlanta, 751 F.2d 1193 (11th Cir.1985) (upholding the validity of a gag order under Bernard because it regulated only commercial speech); Domingo v. New England Fish Co., 727 F.2d 1429 (9th Cir.1984); Kilgo v. Bowman Transp., Inc., 88 F.R.D. 592 (N.D.Ga.1980). Like Bernard, each of these three considered gag orders only in the limited *22context of the federal rules governing class action suits.
. See supra, text accompanying note 52.
. [W]e ordinarily look to such things as the language of the constitutional provision itself, its purpose, the historical context in which it was written, the intention of the framers, the application in prior judicial decisions, the relation of the provision to the law as a whole, the understanding of other branches of government, the law in other jurisdictions, including federal law, constitutional and legal theory, and fundamental values including justice and social policy.
834 S.W.2d at 30 (emphasis added).
. None of the cases cited by the concurrence support the claim that "we ordinarily look to ... federal law" in interpreting our constitution. 834 S.W.2d at 30. Rather, each relied principally on the same factors as did Brown v. Meyer, 787 S.W.2d 42, 45 (Tex.1990): we rest "upon the language and prior construction of our own constitution.”
. The assertion that "[n]ot before today has this Court insisted that the [state and federal speech] provisions are different in substance,” 834 S.W.2d at 35, utterly ignores the host of cases cited in today’s opinion, including the significant observation by this court in LeCroy that our constitution “has independent vitality.” 713 S.W.2d at 339.
. The concurrence’s selective presentation of the record and argument overlooks both counsel’s written and oral pleas for relief under both constitutions. A violation of Relator’s state constitutional rights was encompassed by several of her written filings. Relator’s Second Request for Emergency Interim Relief, at 2; Petition for Writ of Mandamus and Request for Emergency Relief at 1; Brief of Arguments and Authorities in Support of Relator’s Petition for Writ of Mandamus at 7.
At oral argument, Relator contended that ”[t]he gag order itself goes far beyond any of the well established principles established by this court under article I, section right of the Texas Constitution, and the First Amendment.” Responding to Justice Hecht (prior to the "colloquy" quoted in the concurrence) counsel again stated that “what the First Amendment teaches us and what the Texas Constitution says even more for us is you let the speaker speak at his or her own peril.” (emphasis added).
In truth, the parties presented us with as much — or as little — state constitutional law as they did federal. Indeed, there is no preargument mention of Bernard, upon which near exclusive reliance is now placed by the concurrence.
. The Reporter believed, however, that the record was not sealed to the lawyers or parties in the case.
. See Zukerman v. Piper Pools, Inc., 232 N.J.Super. 74, 556 A.2d 775, 786 (1989) ("removal must be for good cause ... of misconduct or inability to serve the best interests of the ward"); Dicupe v. City of New York, 124 A.D.2d 542, 507 N.Y.S.2d 687, 689 (1986) ("If the court believed that the [ad litem] was not acting in the child’s best interest ... it could have replaced him as a guardian.”); Ford v. Moore, 79 A.D.2d 403, 436 N.Y.S.2d 882, 884 (1981) (noting power to remove an ad litem "where the interests of the infant will ... be promoted.”).