Paul Burka's Analysis of the Texas Supreme Court Races

by: Take Back the Texas Supreme Court

Sun Nov 02, 2008 at 09:21 AM CST

"The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court is an intellectually corrupt court. By this I mean that it is infused with the appearance of impropriety and inequity. Who you are matters more than the law and the facts. It has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Texans for Lawsuit Reform. It is also rife with judges who have committed ethical lapses, albeit mostly technical violations of campaign finance and reporting laws. The default choice for the average Court race ought to be the Democrat opposing the Republican, just to bring some balance and fairness back to the Court."

"Wainwright contributes about as much to the Court as an amoeba. He is a go-along judge. He did graduate from an outstanding law school (University of Chicago) and he worked for major law firms. But he is just another TLR vote on the Court. Sam Houston has his law degree from Baylor, and he was a litigator for one of the big Houston law firms. He is supported by a number of prominent defense counsel and has been endorsed by the Dallas Morning News and the American-Statesman. He is not one of those folks who runs for office because he has a famous name, but I'd vote for him even if he were. We have to get some balance on this Court."

"Yanez is the Senior Justice on the Court of Appeals in South Texas. Yanez has won the endorsement of the Express-News, the Chronicle, the American-Statesman, the Caller-Times, and the Bryan-College Station Eagle. The reason is the widespread perception that the Court is predisposed to rule against consumers and injured parties. Johnson has done little to nothing to bring balance to the Court. Yanez will. She has my vote."

"My approach to judicial races is that the Texas legal system is badly out of balance and has been corrupted by the money and power of Texans for Lawsuit Reform - Like so many reformers, TLR set out to do good, and did do good, but then became enamored of power and its ability to spread money around. It is time to restore balance and integrity to the Texas judicial system."

"Access the Dallas County District Courts and you will see that Judge Jim Jordan of the 160th Dist. Court is a 1977 graduate of the Texas Tech law school and is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law. Also he was first appointed to the district bench way back in the Mark White administration. Secondly, the Texas Democratic Party's web site has a link to the full bio of each of its candidates and these show more of Judge Jordan's impressive credentials. Finally, the "Find a Lawyer" device at the web site of the State Bar of Texas brings up law schools, date of admission, and board certifications for all lawyers, but you have to type in the name by which they are registered. In this case, James R. Jordan. By the way, he will be the first member of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel that this old plaintiffs' pi and criminal defense lawyers has ever voted for."

"The San Antonio Express-News reported that 'At the end of 2007, the court left more cases pending than ever before. The court had heard arguments but not issued rulings in 111 cases, including 36 that were more than a year old and 13 others more than 2 years old.'

In an interview with D-FW's News 8, Jefferson admitted the Texas Supreme Court has a work ethic problem:

'I think the court could do better,' he said when asked if the court has a work ethic problem. 'And so to an extent, I would say yes. We could get our opinions out more quickly than we do, and we're doing that.'

Why doesn't Jefferson see that the failure of the Texas Supreme Court as a whole includes the failure of its leader, the Chief Justice? Jefferson recognizes that there is a problem, but - as Chief Justice - he does nothing about it!

We need to get rid of the whole bunch of statewide judges in Austin - every single one of them."

link: http://www.texasmonthly.com/bl...