Texas is somewhat unusual in that, pursuant to the Texas Constitution, all state court judges are elected. I have written about this here and here. Logically, the elections take place within the jurisdictional area of each court. State district judges have county-wide jurisdiction, so the electo…
Month: February 2018
The Long-Awaited Showdown Over Abood
I practiced Labor & Employment Law for 30 years, and was attracted to the subject while in law school. One of my first published articles, in the Labor Law Journal (1980) was on a terribly misguided 1977 Supreme Court decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. The case dealt with the abil…
Tucker Carlson’s Segment on Rogue Judges
I am a fan of Tucker Carlson Tonight, and usually enjoy his monologues, but his February 21, 2018 segment entitled “Rogue Judges: Federal Courts the Most Decayed Institution of All” was one of the best treatments of the subject I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen it, I highly…
Is Impeachment the Answer to Judicial Overreach?
Critics of judicial activism yearn for quick solutions and easy answers, but there aren’t any. Impeachment of activist judges is not going to happen. In this article in American Greatness, I explain why not.
Texas Law Review, Adrift
As a law student at the University of Texas many years ago, I was a proud member of the Texas Law Review, the author (actually, co-author) of a student note, and an articles editor for volume 58. I later became a life member of the Texas Law Review Association (an organization for former TLR memb…
The Demise of Democracy: Part 2
In the second (and concluding) installment of my look at “institutional reform litigation” in Law and Liberty, I review the lawsuit against Texas’ foster care system, before federal court Judge Janis Graham Jack in Corpus Christi. Her egregious ruling is currently on appeal to t…
Manhattan Institute Program on “Judicial Engagement v. Judicial Restraint”
About this time last year, the Manhattan Institute hosted a program featuring Clark Neily and me to discuss our respective views of the Constitution and the appropriate role of judges. You can watch a video of the program here.
My Critique of “Judicial Engagement”
I have objected to the libertarian theory of “judicial engagement” since I first heard it advanced by Clark Neily at a Federalist Society event where he was promoting his book, Terms of Engagement. I have debated Clark and written about his book in National Review, Law and Liberty, C…
Looking Back at Law School: A Lawyer Ruminates on Legal Education
In recent years my law school alma mater has hosted an annual “celebration of diversity” event, which I recently attended out of curiosity. I thought that my law school class of long ago was quite diverse, with students from all over Texas, who had attended a variety of colleges and universit…
The Demise of Democracy: Part 1
In a two-part post for Law and Liberty, I discuss the long-running litigation against Texas’ foster care system, beginning with an overview of “institutional reform litigation.” Read the first part here.