Texas Judicial System

Revamping the Texas Government System at the Judicial Level Is Texas government at the state level operating as an antiquated 19th century institution and should it be revamped to address the needs and wants of the 21st century population? This is a question that has long plagued the government and people of Texas, especially at the judiciary level. The Texas Judicial system is “responsible for securing liberty and equality under the law” (Champagne and Harpham 277) for the people of Texas. However, the outdated ways in which the Texas Judicial system operates is not beneficial to its people, this is notably evident in the way judges are elected, the judicial politics that follow and the confusing court systems. A question that seems to be

In Texas, partisan elections became a concern only after Texas became a Republican state. Texas used to be “overwhelmingly a Democratic state and judges were elected as Democrats” however, this all began to change in the late 1970’s early 80’s when the Republicans started to seek positions. This was greatly “helped by the popularity of Ronald Reagan in Texas. . .” (287) since the early 1990’s Texas has become known as a Republican state. This caused elections to become highly partisan, competition between candidates increased, which in turn, meant more money was needed for campaigns. In order for judicial candidates to be successful they need to be more visible, “because judicial races tend to have low-visibility races, in which voters are unaware of the candidates.” (288) In order for this to be possible nominees seek to place television ads which are quite costly therefore they need big money contributions to their campaign funds. Since “Texas voters do not give much money to judicial campaigns. . .” (288) it became necessary to find donors elsewhere, “. . . lawyers, interest groups, and political litigants…tend to be [the] donors. . .”(288). This has created great concern many people feel that the judge will now be beholden to these lawyers and groups. “The influence of special interest money in judicial campaigns raises important questions about the relationship between the rule of law

Texas has two high-courts, the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals, each have 9 justices. Below the two high-courts is the Court of Appeals with 14 courts, 80 justices, followed by district Courts, which have 456 courts with 456 judges, and the County-Level Courts having 505 Courts and 505 judges. Below these are the municipal courts in 920 cities, 6 towns with 1559 judges and justice of the peace courts having 819 courts with 819 judges. Overlapping of jurisdictions causes great confusion add to the confusion is that “some courts have specialized jurisdiction, whereas others have broad authority to handle a variety of cases” (277) creating a “hodgepodge of courts” (277). Reforms within the Texas court system is clearly needed and many reforms have been recommended from merging the Texas Supreme Court with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, reducing the number of judges and justices, revamping jurisdictions for all courts and having no overlapping jurisdictions. What once worked many years ago is no longer effective or efficient, for example, in the days of the horse-drawn buggies people needed to be able to reach the county seat where their court house was located within a day so there were numerous county courts but today transportation is no longer an issue for most Texans so there absolutely could be a reduction of courts. This alone, would