Voting for Judges in Texas

In theory I like the idea of being able to vote out a judge who doesn’t do the job well, or fails to grasp the concept of abiding by the written law rather than his/her own arbitrary sensibilities. We do that in Texas. But it has been a rather difficult and confusing process. With the internet, it has become more possible to get information, so if feels a little less like going in to a test without studying. But still, with sometimes dozens of judges on the ballot, it can be daunting.

This time around has been a little better. A number of judges have come to our local tea party meetings, to let us get acquainted with them and ask them questions. And several of them have recognized that we need to be educated on how the court districts are set up. So I thought it would only be fair for me to pass along some of that information. (You can see this in chart form here.)

I recognize that this is local information, but our process may be instructive to all readers.

Summary

Working from the top down, Texas has two statewide “supreme” courts, each with nine justices. The one called the Supreme Court is the ultimate word in civil appeals. The one called Court of Criminal Appeals is the ultimate word in criminal appeals. These courts are discretionary—open to interpretation of the law.

The courts of Appeals include 14 districts assigned to areas across Texas, with 80 justices total. This is the court for direct appeal. The justices here are legal analysts.

The next lower level is trial courts. First the District Courts: there are 456, each with one judge: 359 districts contain one county, and 97 contain more than one county. Some are general and some are assigned specific matters, such as juvenile matters or felony criminal matters. Appeals from here go up to the Court of Appeals.

Also appealing directly to the Court of Appeals are the County-Level Courts: Constitutional County Courts (one per county), Statutory County Courts (233 in 87 counties), and Statutory Probate Courts (18 in 10 counties, limited only to probate matters).

The lowest level courts, for local trials and limited jurisdictions, are Justice Courts (817 with one judge each) and Municipal Courts (923 Cities with 1537 judges). Appeals from these courts would go up to the county-level courts.

Our Recommendations

OK, now for what’s on the ballot, and our recommendations. I sat down with my son Political Sphere and his wife. We printed out copies of our sample ballot, from www.harrisvotes.com, which is particularly helpful this year, since we got redistricted and haven’t yet received our voter registration cards. We combined what we learned from candidates at tea party meetings, what we could find online (you do a search for the name plus “for judge.”) We added info from the local bar association ratings, and word on a few from some lawyer friends who generally share our views. We took bar ratings with a grain of salt (the bar leans liberal, but sometimes you can learn from the patterns of approval nevertheless). If all else seemed equal, the impression the candidate made in person at a tea party meeting became the deciding factor. Willingness to meet the people was a positive.

Supreme Courts

I’m concerned mainly with GOP judges, since I believe we get better constructionist philosophy on the bench that way. So, on the GOP ballot, there are three Supreme Court Justices up for reelection. Nathan Hecht is the oldest of those running; he is unopposed, and I know of no negatives about him. David Medina is the incumbent (running against John Devine and Joe Pool). Don Willett is also an incumbent (running against Steve Smith). I see no reason not to keep these incumbents.

On the Court of Criminal Appeals, Elsa Alcala and Barbara Hervey are both incumbents running unopposed. It was Elsa Alcala who came to our meeting—mainly just to help us be more informed voters. Sharon Keller has no primary opponent, but has a democrat challenger.

Courts of Appeals

The two appellate court districts in and around Houston are the 1^st and 14^th districts. No one is facing opposition in the primary, and I don’t know of any specific negatives about any of them, so we’ll give all the GOP candidates our votes. 

District Courts

In Harris County, the numbering system for the district courts isn’t related to location. When a new court is needed because of population, the next number is added. And it’s hard to know from the number what the court is used for. There are so  many, I’ll only list those that have primary opposition. 

·         11^th Judicial District: Bruce Bain

·         61^st Judicial District: Jeff Hastings (met him several times at tea party meetings)

·         129^th Judicial District: Michael Landrum (met him more than once, and he made a good impression)

·         133^rd Judicial District: Lamar McCorkle

·         151^st Judicial District: Leif Olson (very young, but we had a long conversation, good future)

·         152^nd Judicial District: Allyson Wilkinson (met her)

·         164^th Judicial District: Sophia Mafrige (met her)

·         174^th Judicial District: Joe Vinas

·         177^th Judicial District: Ryan Patrick (very young, haven’t met him, but trusted friends recommended him)

·         179^th Judicial District: Kristin Guiney (met her) 

Other County Judges

The District Attorney is a powerful position in a county this size. Unfortunately there has been a lot of dissatisfaction with the current GOP DA. Word is her office is badly run, morale is low, and she has run off some very good prosecutors who were no longer willing to work with her. Her ads claim being strong makes enemies, but from what I’ve heard from multiple reliable sources is that dissatisfaction isn’t about philosophy on toughness with the law, but about her personal inability to do the job. 

Her opponent, MikeAnderson, came to a tea party meeting. He was impressive and reasonable. He is well liked according to bar ratings. He gets the recommendation from several people I know who have worked with him. So, while it’s somewhat drastic to oust an incumbent republican, in this case I feel good about endorsing Anderson, rather than Pat Lykos. 

County Court at Law No 2 is one I know less about, but online research led us to go with Theresa Chang. 

For County Attorney, again, because of online research, we’re going with Leslie Johnson.