TCJL Journal Summer 16
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Fall 2016 Judicial Educating Yourself on Down Ballot Races Endorsements Visit www.texasjudges.org for Profiles & Comparisons of Judicial Candidates Inside Back Cover udicial races are “down ballot.” What this must vote! Turnout is important, for both the Amicus Report means is that they are typically at the end primaries and the general election. Jof a very long list of items needing voters’ • Texans need to elect judges who are fair, Page 6 attention. The Texas Civil Justice League is impartial and well qualified. It’s easy to run as reminding Texans that ballot fatigue is bad for a single-issue candidate, but judges with Paid or Incurred? our state — we are urging voters to become activist agendas are not good for Texas. Learn Page 10 educated and to vote all the way through about the people on your ballot and vote for the their ballots. Join us and help your circle of ones who will do a great job for our state. 2016 General influence understand that: The Texas Civil Justice League (TCJL) is launching • Judges are important. They have a direct a statewide voter education effort to increase Races impact on citizens, perhaps more than any awareness about the importance of electing —and Page 12 other elected official, because they make deci - re-electing — qualified judges. We need your help. sions that can affect jobs, homes, children and As Texans, we get to elect our judges. That’s a personal freedoms. big responsibility. Help us urge people to do their Voting Rights Act Lawsuit • Voters must take the responsibility to educate homework, to go to the polls, and to vote for good Seeks to Invalidate Texas Judicial Election System . .3 themselves about judicial races. And they people who will make great judges. n TCJL Speaks Out Against Discovery Abuses in Hailstorm a . .7 When You Vote in November, SCOTX Rules that Chapter 95 Not Applicable to Property Don’t Forget the Judges Owner’s Employees . .9 ith the 24/7 media coverage of the This November voters will choose three Texas Dawn Buckingham (R-Lakeway) for Texas Senate District 24 . .11 presidential election in high gear, it is Supreme Court justices, three Court of Criminal Weasy to forget that there are a number Appeals judges, three Courts of Appeals chief jus - TCJL 30th Anniversary of other races on the ballot that have a far more tices, and dozens of appellate justices and trial Celebration . .18 direct impact on Texans’ daily lives, most notably court judges. Some of these races are uncon - REGISTER NOW! the judiciary. And while voter participation in tested, but many are not. Supreme Court Justices presidential elections historically runs about 20- Debra Lehrmann, Paul Green, and Eva Guzman TCJL 30th 25% higher than in non-presidential years, a sig - all have challengers, two of whom have signifi - Anniversary Celebration nificant number of voters don’t stay in the voting cant judicial experience. Justice Lehrmann faces booth long enough to cast votes for judicial can - former Corpus Christi District Judge Mike Friday, November 4, 2016 didates farther down the ballot. Moreover, though Westergren, while Justice Green draws longtime The Driskill polling data continues to show that Texas is likely Corpus Christi Court of Appeals Justice Dori 600 Brazos Street to remain reliably red, a tightening presidential Garza. Justice Guzman’s opponent, Savannah Austin, Texas 78701 race at the top could spell difficulty for down-bal - Robinson, has no judicial experience. online TCJL.com/RSVP lot candidates, particularly in parts of the state email [email protected] that could see locally heavy turnout. See Don’t Forget , page 5 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Richie Jackson, Chairman Harold Kim Texas Restaurant Association US Chamber of Commerce TCJL Executive Committee TCJL Executive Committee Hector Rivero, Vice Chairman Gary Barrett Texas Chemical Council Bayer Healthcare TCJL Executive Committee Russell Bridges Leslie Ward, Secretary 3M AT&T TCJL Executive Committee Dave Cagnolatti Phillips 66 Bill Oswald, Treasurer Koch Companies Michael Chatron TCJL Executive Committee Association General Contractors Texas Building Branch Jeff Bonham Eric Donaldson CenterPoint Energy Altria Client Services TCJL Executive Committee Walter Fisher Jay Gibson Walter Fisher & Associates Dow Chemical Company TCJL Executive Committee Jonna Kay Hamilton Nationwide Insurance Bo Gilbert Carol Sims USAA Diane Hirsch Executive Director TCJL Executive Committee Valero Energy Corp. Julia Rathgeber Walt Jordan Association of Electric Companies of Texas ONCOR Electric TCJL Executive Committee STAFF Sherman “Tiger” Joyce George S. Christian Louis J. Goodman American Tort Reform Assn Senior Counsel Texas Medical Association TCJL Executive Committee Gaspar X. Laca Lisa Kaufman GlaxoSmithKline General Counsel Chris Newton Texas Apartment Association H. Lee Loftis, Jr. Chantal Romo TCJL Executive Committee Independent Insurance Agents of Texas Director of Executive Services Julie Moore Alicia Glover Travis Kessler Occidental Petroleum Texas Association of Realtors Comptroller TCJL Executive Committee Steve Perry Trey Jackson Chevron Director, Robert Levy Information & Web Design Civil Justice Reform Group Richard Ponder Exxon Mobil Johnson & Johnson TCJL Executive Committee Julio Reyes Tom Sellers AEP Texas Conoco Phillips TCJL Executive Committee Paul Solomon State Farm Insurance Todd Staples Texas Oil & Gas Association Tim Watt TEXAS CIVIL TCJL Executive Committee Zachry Corp. JUSTICE LEAGUE 400 W. 15th Street, Suite 1400 Austin, Texas 78701 www.tcjl.com EX OFICIO [email protected] Red McCombs – McCombs Enterprises Ralph Wayne Ruben Martin – Martin Resources 2 Texas Civil Justice League Journal Fall 2016 Voting Rights Act Lawsuit Seeks to Invalidate Texas Judicial Election System he Lawyer’s Committee for Civil tricts” in either nine-district or eight-district elections, since they would assure that most Rights under Law filed a federal plans. Given the chance, the complaint judges would be elected by white voters and T lawsuit on behalf of seven Latino and alleges, Latino voters would “vote over - that litigation affecting minority voters Latina voters challenging Texas’ at-large whelmingly for different candidates than would almost always be heard by judges elections for Texas Supreme Court and Court those supported by white voters.” elected by others. As Justice Patrick of Criminal Appeals justices. The suit, filed The complaint goes on to discuss Texas’ Higginbotham put it: in the U.S. District Court of the Southern history of voting discrimination, violations The distrust of judicial subdistricts does District of Texas in Corpus Christi, alleges of the Voting Rights Act, and the relative not rest on paternalism. It recognizes that the current system violates Section 2 of economic and educational differences Texas’ historic interest in having district the Voting Rights Act in that it denies Texas’ between white and Latino populations in judges remain accountable to all voters in Latino voters the right to elect judicial candi - the state. Consequently, Texas Latinos have their district. Regardless of the race or res - dates of their choice. The plaintiffs are ask - lower rates of voter registration and turnout idency of particular litigants, judges make ing the court to issue a declaratory judgment than white voters and Latinos are “drastically choices that affect all county residents. that the current system violates Section 2, underrepresented among elected officials in Texas has insisted that trial judges answer injunctive relief against further use of at- Texas.” The complaint further alleges that to all county voters at the ballot box. large elections, and an order requiring future decisions of the courts significantly affect Unlike legislators or even appellate elections to be held under a legally compli - the Latino community, sometimes adversely, judges, who make decisions in groups, ant plan. and that the state’s high courts lack the each district judge holds a single-member Specifically, the lawsuit notes that perspective of candidates backed by that office and acts alone. When collegial bod - although the percentage of Latino voters community. ies are involved, all citizens continue to continues to grow rapidly, particularly in the Those involved in judicial election battles elect at least one person involved in mak - southern and western parts of the state, only over the past 30 years may remember seeing ing a particular decision. While subdis - three Latino justices have served on the a version of this movie before. In 1988, 10 tricting for multimember offices can Texas Supreme Court since 2002, whereas Latino and Latina voters and the League of enhance minority influence because only one has served on the Court of Criminal United Latin American Citizens filed suit in members from minority subdistricts par - Appeals. No Latino judge has won a seat on federal district court alleging that Texas’ ticipate in and influence all of the deci - the state’s highest courts without first being method of selecting state trial judges in sin - sions of the larger body, subdistricting for appointed by the Governor, and of 15 Latino gle-county or multi-county districts violated single-member district court judgeships candidates who have run for seats on the Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The suit would leave minority voters with no elec - courts since 2002 (10 for the Supreme Court, sought to divide nine counties in Texas— toral influence over the majority of judges 5 for the Court of Criminal Appeals), only Harris,