Money & Justice Forum
Is Texas Ripe for Judicial Reform?
Texans United to Amend was invited to send representatives to the Money & Justice Forum on Nov 21, 2013.
Justice Wallace Jefferson, former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, opened the forum by reading from his op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle of March 21, 2009.
You don’t know who I am. I don’t blame you. I have been on the statewide ballot three times, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. I was elected each time by impressive margins. Yet a July 2008 statewide poll found that 86 percent of the electorate “never heard of” me. I won because Texans voted for Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John McCain.
My parents gave me a good ballot name. My beautiful wife and three handsome sons adorned political advertisements on network television. But these things tell you nothing about my intellect, integrity or temperament.
My success depended primarily on a straight-ticket partisan vote. Continue reading →
You don’t know who I am. I don’t blame you. I have been on the statewide ballot three times, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. I was elected each time by impressive margins. Yet a July 2008 statewide poll found that 86 percent of the electorate “never heard of” me. I won because Texans voted for Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John McCain.
My parents gave me a good ballot name. My beautiful wife and three handsome sons adorned political advertisements on network television. But these things tell you nothing about my intellect, integrity or temperament.
My success depended primarily on a straight-ticket partisan vote. Continue reading →
Bert Brandenburg, executive director, Justice at Stake, presented the "New Politics of Judicial Elections."
A 51 page report by The Brennan Center for Justice and Justice at Stake. 
Below is the agenda for the forum and biographies of the presenters. On short notice Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson became available to give the keynote address.
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Below is the 6 page evaluation by Texas Fair Courts Network with information on attempts to change the system, how it's being done in other states, potential methods of reform.
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Tom “Smitty” Smith, Director of Public Citizen Texas, presented a short history of judicial reform in Texas.
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Craig MacDonald of Texans for Public Justice
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A panel, moderated by Sherri Greenberg, Director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, addressed the challenges to Fair Courts.
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After several hours of listening to this distinguished group of speakers, the 45 community leaders attending the forum met in small groups to discuss alternatives to our current system of partisan election of judges. Among the alternatives were merit selection with retention elections, non-partisan elections, publicly funded elections, and imposition of tougher recusal standards.
Each group was asked:
Each group was asked:
- to discuss the alternatives (or parts of alternatives) they would most favor, and why
- to discuss the alternatives (or parts of alternatives) they would least favor, and why
- to reflect on something they learned, something that surprised them, or something they struggled with during the conversation
- to report to the whole audience the option that was most favored, the option that was least favored, and the reasons for both.
Comments from TUTA Members who Attended
TUTA focus has been on building public awareness of the issue of money in politics and getting local resolutions to amend the US Constitution. As a group we have not been involved with money in Judicial elections and how it is impacting our state. I went into this event knowing very little about the Texas Justice System, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I learned about the problems with our Judicial Elections, what options are being tried in other states and more. The speakers were interesting and informative and the time flew by. After listening for a few hours we went to our assigned groups for lively discussions about the options that were presented as well as our own ideas. I had to leave early and missed the report to the wider group so I'm looking forward to read the summary which will be posted soon. It was an honor for TUTA to be invited to participate in such a prestigious event.
Rochelle Day
Rochelle Day