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Lawyers and laypersons all over Texas and the United States were shocked to see that phrase go from a figurative reference to a literal reality at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week when Chief Judge Sharon Keller ordered the doors be closed at 5:00 pm knowing that lawyers were minutes away from filing paperwork for a death row defendant who was to be executed that evening. That same evening the defendant was executed without a single judge from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reviewing his lawyers' motion. The lawyers' pleas were based on a decision made days earlier by the United States Supreme Court to review a complaint in a death penalty case in another state similar to the one in their case.
Many of us in the legal community were also stunned to see twenty lawyers publicly announce they were filing a complaint with the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission against Judge Kellar for her actions that day.
While we were stunned we were also proud to see lawyers standing up for the Constitution and for access to justice. Lawyers and elected officials take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Too often that oath is interpreted to mean that we should just not violate the Constitution ourselves. That oath means so much more than that. Twenty lawyers reminded Texas and the rest of the nation and the world just what is required by those of us who swear to protect and defend the Constitution.
That is why other groups and individuals are joining in that complaint this week. I am joining in it. The Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to report activity by other judges that violates the Code. Behavior that diminishes public confidence in the justice system violates the Code.
During the Watergate hearings Barbara Jordan said. "My faith in the Constitution is complete. I will not stand by and be an idle spectator in the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."
Years earlier during the McCarthy era Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine stood on the floor of the United States Senate and said, " Mr. President,... I think it is high time we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution."
It is high time we remember that in Texas now.
Judge Susan Criss
www.judgecriss.com
www.astheislandfloats.com
www.co.galveston.tx.us/judgecriss
409 771 4069
PO Box 16474
Galveston,TX 77552
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