GOVT chapter 8

One of the first things you need to learn is that justice in Texas isn’t always _____, despite the ideal of everyone being treated equally under the law in the state’s courts. Litigation is expensive, and many Texans do not have the money to pay for adequate legal assistance, much less the large fees that the best lawyers command and the huge expenses that some lawsuits can cost. Most judges try to be fair, but their decisions can be affected by their political and ideological _____, life experiences, ethnicity, and gender. In recent years, moreover, Texas courts have been at the center of controversies that have severely strained the notion that the scales of justice are weighted in an atmosphere free of outside influences. Large campaign contributions to elected state judges—from lawyers who practice before them and from other special interests—have fueled an ongoing high-stakes war for philosophical and political control of the judiciary and have raised questions in the media and among many advocacy groups about whether some Texas courtrooms are “for ____.”

blind

views

sale

State courts resolve civil disputes over property rights, personal injuries, and other issues. They determine guilt or innocence and set punishment in criminal cases involving offenses against people, property, and public institutions. To a more limited extent than the federal judiciary, they also help set policy by reviewing the actions of the executive and legislative branches of __________.

government

The federal judiciary has jurisdiction over violations of federal laws, including some criminal offenses, and over banking, securities, and other activities regulated by the federal government. Federal courts have had major effects on _____ government policies and Texas’s criminal justice system through interpretations and applications of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws, including the Bill of Rights.

state

Although Texas has a bill of rights in its constitution, the _______ courts have taken the lead in protecting many civil and political liberties. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, for example, to declare the white primary election unconstitutional in the landmark Smith v. Allwright case (1944) was part of a long fight to end political discrimination against Black voters during the ____________ era.

federal

segregation

Federal court intervention continues in the _____________ of legislative and congressional district lines. The federal judiciary has ordered far-reaching improvements in the Texas ______ system. When police officers read criminal suspects their rights, the officers comply with constitutional requirements determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Miranda case. Nevertheless, estimates indicate that more than 95 percent of all litigation is based on state ____ or local ordinances. Thus, anyone involved in a lawsuit is likely to be found in a state rather than a _______ court.

redistricting

prison

laws

federal

The U.S. and Texas constitutions provide the basic legal framework for the Texas court system. Building on that framework, the Texas legislature has enacted codes of criminal and civil procedure to govern conduct in the courtroom and _________ laws for the courts to apply.

statutory

penal code

a body of law that defines most criminal offenses and sets a range of punishments that can be assessed

The Texas Penal Code defines most criminal activities and their punishments. In criminal cases, the state, often based on charges made by another individual, initiates action against a person accused of a crime. The most serious criminal offenses, for which prison sentences can be imposed, are called felonies. More minor offenses, punishable by fines or _____ sentences in county or city jails, are called misdemeanors.

short

civil lawsuit

a noncriminal legal dispute between two or more individuals, businesses, governments, or other inteties

Civil law governs contracts and property rights between private citizens, affords individuals an avenue for relief against corporate abuses, determines liability for personal injuries, and gives government regulatory enforcement powers over many aspects of the state’s _______. The latter may include a lawsuit by the state against an oil company for violating a drilling permit or an environmental regulation.

economy

An individual with a grievance has to take the initiative of going to _____. A person can have problems with a landlord who refuses to return a deposit, a dry cleaner that lost a suit, or a friend who has borrowed and wrecked a car. But no legal issue can be resolved unless a lawsuit is filed. An injured person filing a lawsuit is a plaintiff, and the person or other entity being sued is a _________. Both are considered litigants. Because even the most minor disputes in the lowest courts can require professional assistance from a lawyer, people involved in lawsuits soon discover that the pursuit of justice can be costly and time consuming.

court

defendant

original jurisdiction

the authority of a court to try to resolve a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution being heard for the first time

appellate jurisdiction

the authority of a court to review the decisions of lower courts to determine if the law was correctly interpreted and legal procedures were correctly followed

Appellate courts are empowered to reverse the judgments of the lower courts and to order cases to be retried if constitutional or procedural _______ were made.

mistakes

At the highest appellate level, Texas has a bifurcated court system with the nine-member Texas Supreme Court serving as the court of last resort in civil and juvenile cases and the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals functioning as the court of last resort in criminal cases. Only one other state, ________, has a similar structure.

Oklahoma

what are the two highest courts of the state Judiciary

Texas Supreme Court

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Unlike federal judges, who are appointed by the president to ________ terms, state judges, except for those on municipal courts, are elected to limited terms in ________ elections. Judges and judicial candidates are nominated in party primaries and listed on the general election ballot by their party ___________. Midterm vacancies on courts, however, are filled by appointment. County commissioners courts fill vacancies on justice of the peace and ______ courts, and the governor fills vacancies on district and appellate courts.

lifetime

partisan

affiliations

county

what are the lowest ranking trial courts in Texas

municipal courts and justice of the peace courts

municipal court

a court of limited jurisdiction that hears cases involving city ordinances and primarily handles traffic tickets

justice of the peace courts

a low-ranking court with jurisdiction over minor civil disputes and criminal cases

State law authorizes cities to create _________ courts, but some cities rely instead on justice of the peace courts. Some 947 cities, or about three-fourths of the incorporated cities in Texas, have municipal courts, and a number of those have multiple judges. Individual cities determine the qualifications, terms of office, and method of selecting municipal judges, but they generally are appointed by the ____ council. Municipal courts have original and exclusive jurisdiction over city ordinances, but most of these courts are not courts of record, in which a word-for-word ___________ is made of trial proceedings. Most of these courts record only very rudimentary information, and any appeal from them is heard de novo by a higher court. That is, the second court has to conduct a new trial and hear the same witnesses and evidence all over again because no official record of the original proceedings was kept. Responding to this problem, the legislature in recent years has created municipal courts of ______ for some cities.

municipal

city

transcript

record

Each county in Texas must have one justice of the peace court, and each county government in the larger metropolitan areas may create sixteen. There are 800 of these courts in Texas. Justices of the peace are elected to ____-year terms from precincts, or subdivisions of the county drawn by the _____________ court, which also sets their salaries. Justices of the peace are not required to be licensed _________.

four

commissioners

attorneys

Although their duties vary from county to county, justice of the peace courts, with certain restrictions, have original jurisdiction in civil cases when the amount in dispute is $10,000 or less, and they have original jurisdiction over criminal offenses that are punishable by _____ only. In some areas of criminal law, they have overlapping jurisdiction with municipal courts. Justices of the peace also sit as judges of small claims courts, and in many rural counties they serve as ________. They also function as state magistrates with the authority to hold preliminary hearings to determine if there is probable cause to ____ a criminal defendant. Each justice of the peace court has an elected _________ to serve warrants and perform other duties for the court.

fines

coroners

hold

constable

Any confusion about the authority and jurisdiction of municipal and justice of the peace courts is compounded by the ______ courts. The first county courts were created by the Texas Constitution to serve the needs of the sparsely populated, _____ society that existed when the charter was approved in 1876. But population growth and urbanization have placed enormous demands on the judicial system, and rather than modernize the system, the state has _____ courts while making only modest changes in the structure and jurisdiction of the existing courts.

county

rural

added

Each county has a constitutional county court. The holder of this office, the county judge, is elected countywide to a ____-year term. This individual is the chief executive officer of the county and presides over the county _____________ court, the policymaking body of county government. Most urban county judges do not perform ________ duties, but county judges in many _____ counties perform both executive and judicial functions, a dual responsibility that some experts believe is inconsistent with the Texas Constitution’s separation-of-_______doctrine. Although many county judges are lawyers, they are not required to be. They are required only to be “well informed in the law” and to take appropriate courses in evidence and legal procedures.

four

commissioners

judicial

rural

powers

The constitutional county court shares some original civil jurisdiction with both the justice of the peace and district courts. It has original criminal jurisdiction over misdemeanors punishable by fines of ____ than $500 and jail sentences of one year or less. These courts also probate wills and have appellate jurisdiction over cases tried ___________ in justice of the peace and municipal courts.

more

originally

Over the years, the legislature also has created 275 _________ county courts, or county courts-at-law, in about 90 counties. Some specialize in probate cases and are called probate courts. These courts were designed to deal with specific local problems and, consequently, have ___________ jurisdictions. Judges on these courts are elected countywide and have to be lawyers, but the authority of a particular court is defined by the legislation by which it was _______. Some statutory county courts cannot hear civil disputes involving more than $2,500, whereas others can hear disputes involving as much as $200,000. Drunk driving cases are the primary criminal cases tried before these courts, but some also hear appeals de novo from lower courts.

statutory

inconsistent

created

district court

a court with general jurisdiction over criminal feonly cases and civil disputes

The primary trial court in Texas is the district court. Although there is some overlapping jurisdiction with county courts, district courts have original jurisdiction over civil cases involving $200 or more in damages, divorce cases, contested elections, suits over land titles and liens, suits for slander or defamation, all criminal felony cases, and misdemeanors involving official misconduct. In recent years, the legislature has created district courts with specialized jurisdiction over criminal or civil law or over such specialties as family law—divorces and child custody cases. In some large metropolitan counties that have numerous district courts, informal agreements among judges determine the jurisdictions of the respective courts. District court judges are elected to four-year terms, must be at least 25 years old, and must have practiced law or served as judges of other courts for ____ years prior to taking office.

four

Many urban counties suffer from a heavy backlog of cases that can _____ a trial date in civil lawsuits and even some criminal cases for months or years. Delays in criminal cases have prompted a widespread use of ____ bargains. In plea bargaining, a criminal defendant, through a lawyer, negotiates with prosecutors a guilty plea that will get a lesser sentence than the defendant could expect to receive if convicted in a trial. The process saves the state the time-consuming expense of a full-blown _____ and has become an essential tool in clearing urban court dockets.

delay

plea

trial

court of appeals (Texas has 14 of them)

an intermediate-level court that reviews civil and criminal cases from the district courts

Disparities exist in the caseloads among individual appellate courts, with those in Houston and _____ handling the lion’s share. The Texas Supreme Court partially balances the load by ___________ cases among courts. The courts of appeals normally decide cases in panels of three judges, but an entire court can hear some appeals en banc—when ___ of the judges of an appellate court sit to hear a case. 

Dallas

transferring

all

The creation of separate courts of last resort for civil and criminal cases was part of the effort by the constitutional framers of 1876 to ________ political power and decentralize the structure of state and local governments. It also was based on the rationale that criminal cases should be handled more expeditiously, and the way to accomplish this was through a separate appellate court.

fragment

Although it decides only civil appeals and cases involving juveniles, the Texas Supreme Court is probably viewed by most Texans as the unofficial ____ of the state judiciary, and it has been given some authority to coordinate the state judicial system. The Supreme Court is charged with developing administrative procedures for state courts and rules of civil _________. It appoints the Board of Law Examiners, which is responsible for licensing attorneys, and has oversight of the State Bar, the professional organization to which lawyers in Texas belong. The Supreme Court also has disciplinary authority over state judges through recommendations of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

head

procedure

The Texas Supreme Court includes a chief justice and eight justices who serve staggered, ___-year terms. Three members are up for election every two years on a statewide, ________ ballot. Members must be at least 35 years old and must have been practicing attorneys, judges of a court of record, or a combination of both for at least 10 years.

six

partison

Many judges on the intermediate and highest _______ courts previously served on lower courts. Most ________ judges came to their offices from private law practices or prosecutors’ offices. 

appellate

district

With the partisan realignment of Texas from Democratic to Republican control, which began in the late 1970s, Republicans saw election gains and more appointments to judicial vacancies. A number of judges also switched from the Democratic Party. By 2003, almost two-thirds of the judges at the district court level and higher were Republicans, but by 2006, Democrats were making a comeback. Democrats swept all judicial races on the ballot in Dallas County that year and made a strong showing in Harris County two years later. In a heavier-than-usual voter turnout in 2018, thanks in part to a highly contested U.S. Senate race at the top of the general election ballot, Democratic judicial candidates made additional huge gains. Democrats unseated 19 Republican justices from the courts of appeals and unseated 37 Republican district court judges in Harris County (Houston). After all the votes were counted, Democrats had flipped the four courts of appeals in Houston, Dallas, and Austin from Republican control and held all the ________ court seats in those cities.

district

Judicial elections have been diluted by a large number of ____________ to judicial vacancies. The governor appoints judges to fill _______ vacancies on the district and appellate courts. County commissioners courts fill midterm vacancies on county courts-at-law and justice of the peace courts. Appointees are required to run for office in the next general election to keep their _____, but their incumbency can enhance their election chances. Six of the nine justices serving on the Texas Supreme Court at the beginning of 2020 had initially been appointed to the court, three by Governor Greg Abbott and three by former Governor Rick Perry.

appointments

midterm

seats

County attorneys and district attorneys prosecute _______ cases. Both positions are elected. Some counties do not have a county attorney. In those that do, the county attorney is the chief legal adviser to county commissioners, represents the county in civil lawsuits, and may prosecute misdemeanors, the more minor criminal offenses. The district attorney prosecutes felonies and, in some counties, also handles misdemeanors. The district attorney exercises considerable power in the criminal justice process by deciding which cases to take to a _____ ____ for an indictment, whether to seek the maximum penalty for an offense, or whether to plea-bargain with a defendant for a reduced sentence. The office represents one county in metropolitan areas and several counties in less populated areas of the state.

criminal

grand jury

County and district clerks, both elected officials, are custodians of court _______. Bailiffs are peace officers assigned to the courts to help maintain order and _______ judges and other parties.

records

protect

The grand jury includes twelve persons who, until a change in state law in 2015, were selected by commissioners appointed by a district judge. This system led to complaints that many grand juries were stacked with judges’ friends and other prominent people and overrepresented the interests of _____ social and economic groups and underrepresented lower income people and people of color. In 2015, the legislature, in an effort to make grand juries more diverse, made the selection process for grand juries the same as that used to select petit, or trial, juries, which is described below. Now, the members of grand juries and trial juries are both chosen at ______ from the lists of people in each county who have driver’s licenses or are registered to vote. 

upper

random

In theory, the grand jury functions to ensure that the government has sufficient reason to proceed with a criminal ___________ against an individual. A district attorney, however, can exercise great control over a grand jury through deciding which evidence and which witnesses jurors will hear. Grand jury meetings and deliberations are conducted in private, and the accused is not allowed to have an ________ present during grand jury questioning.

prosecution

attorney

If at least nine grand jurors believe there is enough evidence to warrant a trial in a case under investigation, they will issue an indictment, or a “true bill,” a written statement charging a person or persons with a _____. A grand jury investigation may result in no indictment, or a “no bill.”

crime

In some cases, grand juries will issue indictments alleging misdemeanors. That often happens after an investigation fails to produce a strong enough case for a ______ indictment. Most misdemeanors, however, are not handled by grand juries; instead, they are handled by the district or county attorney, who prepares an information—a document formally charging an individual with a misdemeanor—on the basis of a complaint filed by a private citizen.

felony

The jury on which most people are likely to be called to serve is the trial or petit jury. Citizens who are at least 18 years old and meet other minimal requirements are eligible for jury duty, and anyone refusing to comply with a jury summons can be fined for contempt of court. Persons older than 70, individuals with legal custody of young children, and full-time students are ________ from jury duty.

exempted

Six persons make up a jury in a justice of the peace or county court and twelve in a district court. Attorneys for both sides in a criminal or civil case screen the prospective jurors, known as veniremen, before a jury is seated. In _____ felony cases, such as capital murder, prosecutors and defense attorneys may take several days to select a jury from hundreds of prospects. 

major

Attorneys for each side in a criminal case are allowed a certain number of peremptory challenges, which allow them to dismiss a prospective juror without having to _______ the reason, and an unlimited number of challenges for cause. In the latter case, lawyers have to state why they believe a particular venireman would be unable to evaluate the evidence in the case impartially. Judges decide whether to grant each challenge for cause but can rule against a peremptory challenge only if they believe the prosecutor is trying to exclude prospective jurors because of their race. If that happens, the defendant is entitled to a new group, or panel, of prospective jurors.

explain

Unanimous jury verdicts are required to convict a defendant in a criminal case. Jurors have to be convinced “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a defendant is guilty before returning a guilty verdict. Agreement of only ten of the twelve members of a district court jury and five of the six on a county court jury, however, is necessary to reach a verdict in a civil suit. Civil litigants and criminal defendants (except those charged with capital murder) can waive their right to a jury trial if they believe it would be to their advantage to have their cases decided by a _____.

judge

The procedure in the appellate courts is markedly different from that in the trial courts. There is no ____ at the appellate level to rehear evidence. Instead, judges review the decision and the procedures of the lower court to determine if they meet constitutional and statutory requirements. The record of the trial court proceedings and legal briefs filed by attorneys are available for appellate judges to review.

jury

Most civil and criminal appeals are initially made to one of the fourteen intermediate courts of appeals. Parties ____________ with decisions of the courts of appeals can appeal to the Texas Supreme Court or the Court of Criminal Appeals.

dissatisfied

petition for review

a petition to the texas supreme court stating that legal or procedural mistakes were made in the lower court, thus meriting a hearing before court

Cases reach the Texas Supreme Court primarily on petitions for review, usually filed by the losing parties, claiming that lower courts made legal or procedural mistakes. The petitions are divided among the nine justices for review. The justices and their briefing attorneys then prepare memoranda on their assigned cases for circulation among the other court members. Meeting in private conference, the court decides which petitions to reject outright—thus upholding the lower court decisions—and which to review and schedule for attorneys’ oral arguments. A case will not be heard without the approval of at least ____ of the nine justices.

four

Most cases taken to the Texas Supreme Court on appeal are from one of the courts of appeals, but occasionally the Supreme Court receives a direct appeal from a district court. In recent years, the court has been hearing about __ to __ percent of the petitions for review it receives.

12 to 15

The Texas Supreme Court also acts on petitions for writs of mandamus, or orders directing a lower court or another public official to take a certain action. Many involve disputes over procedure or evidence in cases still pending in _____ courts. In some cases, the Supreme Court may issue writs of mandamus directing trial judges to consider certain legal factors in admitting evidence.

trial

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases that originate in district and county courts. Death _______ cases are appealed directly to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Other criminal cases are appealed first to the intermediate courts of appeals. Either the defendant or the prosecution can appeal the courts of appeals’ decisions to the Court of Criminal Appeals by filing petitions for discretionary review, which the high court may grant if a sufficient number of judges agree. The court schedules lawyers’ oral arguments in the cases it agrees to review. The task of writing majority opinions is rotated among the nine judges.

penalty

Democratic Governor Mark White appointed the first Hispanic, Raul A. Gonzalez, the son of migrant workers, to the Texas Supreme Court in 1984 to fill a vacancy created by a resignation. Gonzalez made history a second time in 1986 by winning election to the seat and becoming the first Hispanic to win a statewide election in Texas. A native of Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley, Gonzalez previously had served as a state district judge in Brownsville and a member of the Thirteenth Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi. Gonzalez, a Democrat, was one of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court during his tenure. Consequently, he came under frequent attack from trial lawyers and, ironically, from many of the constituent groups within his own party who advocated increasing the number of judges of _____.

color

On succeeding Bush, Republican Governor Rick Perry named the first Black Texan, Wallace Jefferson, an appellate lawyer from San Antonio, to serve on the Texas Supreme Court. Jefferson succeeded Alberto Gonzales, who had resigned to take the White House job. Jefferson, a Republican and the great-great-great grandson of an enslaved person, was elected in 2002 to keep his seat on the high court, and he later was promoted to chief _______. Also in 2002, a second Black Texan, Republican Dale Wainwright, a state district judge from Houston, was elected to an open Supreme Court seat. 

justice

At the beginning of 2020, Eva Guzman, who was elected to a full term in 2010 and reelected in 2016, was the only justice of _____ on the all-Republican court. 

color

Governor Ann Richards appointed the first Hispanic, Fortunato P. Benavides, to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to fill a _______ in 1991. Benavides had been a justice on the Thirteenth Court of Appeals and a district judge and a county court-at-law judge in Hidalgo County. Benavides was narrowly unseated in 1992 by Republican Lawrence Meyers of Fort Worth, a white man, who became the first Republican elected to the criminal court. President Bill Clinton later appointed Benavides to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

vacancy

Obstacles to the election of judicial candidates of color have included the high cost of campaigns, polarized voting along ethnic lines in the statewide or countywide judicial races that are required for most judges, and low rates of participation by voters of color in elections. Another factor has been a historical shortage of _________ of color, from whose ranks judges are drawn.

attorneys

In a lawsuit tried in September 1989 in federal district court in Midland, attorneys for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other plaintiffs of color argued that the countywide system of electing state district judges violated the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of people of _____. They tried to force a change in state law to require district court judges in urban counties to be elected from geographic districts within the county, rather than countywide. This case, League of United Latin American Citizens et al. v. Mattox et al., took almost five years and two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court before the high Court ultimately upheld the countywide election system in 1994. Since then, the Texas legislature has left the countywide election system unchanged, ________ pleas by advocates for change.

color

ignoring

The first woman to serve as a state district judge in Texas was Sarah T. Hughes of ______, who was appointed to the bench in 1935 by Governor James V. Allred, nineteen years before she and other women were allowed to serve on juries in Texas. She served until 1961, when she resigned to accept an appointment by President John F. Kennedy to the federal district bench. Ironically, Hughes is best known for swearing a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson into office aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963, following Kennedy’s _____________ in Dallas.

Dallas

assassination

Ruby Sondock of Houston was the first woman to serve on the Texas _______ _____. She had been a state district judge before Governor Bill Clements named her to the high court on June 25, 1982, to fill a temporary vacancy. Barbara Culver, a state district judge from Midland, became the second female Supreme Court _______ when Clements appointed her in February 1988 to fill another vacancy. Democrat Rose Spector, a state district judge from San Antonio, became the first woman _______ to the Texas Supreme Court when she unseated a Republican justice in 1992. By 2020, nine women had served on the Texas Supreme Court, including three women—Justices Eva Guzman, Debra Lehrmann, and Jane Bland—who were still on the court that year.

Supreme Court

justice

elected

In 1994, Republican Sharon Keller, a former Dallas County prosecutor, became the first woman elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and she became the first female presiding _____ of the court in 2001.

judge

In what may have been a sign of changes to come, women candidates in the March 2020 Democratic primary in Texas won all the races for court seats, about 30 in all, in which a woman was running against a ___.

man

Conservative Democrats still dominated Texas politics at the beginning of the 1970s, as they had for several decades, and they held all nine seats on the Texas Supreme Court. More often than not, the high court sided with insurance companies, banks, utilities, and other large corporate entities when they were sued by unhappy customers and other consumers claiming an assortment of damages or grievances. These outcomes reflected the historic domination of state politics by a conservative, _________-oriented establishment.

business

Establishment-oriented justices, usually elected with the support of the state’s largest law firms, tended to view their role as strict constructionists. They believed the legislature enacted public policy and that the courts narrowly interpreted and applied the law. Judges did not engage in setting policy but honored legal precedent and prior case law, which historically had favored the interests of ____________ over those of consumers, laborers, and the lower social classes.

corporations

The establishment, however, began to feel the first tremors of a major philosophical shakeup in the mid-1970s. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association, whose members represent consumers in lawsuits against businesses, doctors, and insurance companies, increased its political activity. In 1973, the legislature, with increased numbers of people of color and women among its membership from single-member House districts ordered by the federal courts, enacted the Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act, which encouraged injured parties to take their grievances to _____. Among other things, the new law allowed consumers to sue for attorneys’ fees as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

court

Trial, or plaintiffs’, attorneys, who usually receive a healthy percentage of the monetary damages awarded their clients, began contributing millions of dollars to Texas Supreme Court candidates who unseated conservative justices and began to philosophically reshape the court. The new, consumer-oriented court issued significant decisions making it easier for consumers to win large monetary awards for medical malpractice, faulty products, and other complaints against businesses and their insurers. The new activist, liberal interpretation of the law contrasted sharply with the ___________ record of the court.

traditional

The business community and defense lawyers accused the new court majority of exceeding its constitutional authority by trying to write its own laws. Some business leaders contended that the court’s activism endangered the state’s _______ by discouraging new businesses from moving to Texas, a fear that was soon to be put to partisan advantage by leaders of an emerging Republican majority in the state.

economy

merit selection

a proposal under which the governor would appoint state judges from a list of potential nominees recommended by committees of experts. appointed judges would have to run later in retention selections in which voters would decide whether a judge should remain in office or be replaced by another gubernatorial appointee. was first suggested when contributions to judicial races became too extreme

Hill resigned from the court on January 1, 1988, to return to private law practice and lobby as a private citizen for changing the judicial selection method. His resignation and the midterm resignations of two other Democratic justices before the 1988 elections gave Republicans a golden opportunity to make historic inroads on the high court. The resignations also helped the ________ community begin to regain control of the court from plaintiffs’ attorneys.

business

Even though a full Supreme Court term is six years, the governor’s judicial appointees are required to run in the next election to ____ their seats. Clements appointed Thomas R. Phillips, a state district judge from Houston, to succeed Hill and become the first Republican chief justice since the Reconstruction era more than 100 years before. The competing legal and financial interests in Texas understood that the six Texas Supreme Court races on the 1988 ballot would help set the philosophy of the court for years to come. Consequently, these were the most _________ court races in Texas history, with the twelve Republican and Democratic nominees raising $10 million in direct campaign contributions. Much of the money was spent on television advertising.

keep

expensive

Republicans won a fourth seat on the Texas Supreme Court in 1990 and a fifth in 1994, to give the GOP a majority for the first time since ______________.

Reconstruction

The business community moved its war against the trial lawyers to the legislature, which in 1987 enacted a so-called tort reform package that attempted to put some ______ on personal injury lawsuits and damage judgments entered by the courts. A tort is a wrongful act over which a lawsuit can be brought. _________ companies, which had been lobbying nationwide for states to set limits on jury awards in personal injury cases, were major proponents of the legislation. The Texas Civil Justice League, an organization of trade and professional associations, cities, and businesses, joined them. Governor Bill Clements enthusiastically supported the high-stakes campaign for change, but consumer groups and plaintiffs’ lawyers opposed it.

limits

Insurance

Among other things, the 1987 tort reform laws limited governmental liability, attempted to discourage frivolous lawsuits, and limited the ability of claimants to collect damages for injuries that were largely their own fault. The new laws also set limits on punitive damages, which are designed to punish whoever _____ an accident or an injury and often were awarded in addition to an injured party’s compensation for actual losses.

caused

The 1995 changes, major priorities of then-Governor George W. Bush, imposed even stricter limits on punitive damages and limited the liability of a party who is only _________ responsible for an injury.

partially

The 2003 legislation, actively sought by Governor Rick Perry and a new Republican majority in the Texas House, set new restrictions on class action lawsuits—which are brought on behalf of large groups of people—and imposed new limits on money that can be awarded for noneconomic _______—such as pain, suffering, or disfigurement—in medical malpractice cases. A leading proponent for civil justice restrictions in recent years has been Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), a business group whose political action committee has given millions of campaign dollars to legislators and legislative candidates, as well as members of the Texas Supreme Court.

damages

Another strong tort reform advocate has been the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative, free enterprise think tank that has been influential with Texas’s Republican leadership on a number of issues. In an article published in 2017, Kathleen Hunker, a senior policy analyst with the foundation, said the limits on lawsuits and civil liability have been good for Texas and its economy. “The Texas model works because it strives to keep as much capital as possible in the hands of market participants. . . . Again and again, time has shown that excessive liability impedes economic activity. By instituting common-sense limits on that liability, Texas gave its current and prospective residents a reason to ______ in their future and that of the state. The results speak for themselves.”

invest

In a study released in 1999, Texas Watch, a consumer advocacy group, said that doctors, hospitals, and other business-related litigants had been big winners before the Texas Supreme Court during the previous four years and that consumers had fared ______. This was a period during which most court members received substantial campaign funding from doctors, insurers, and other business interests. Most of the opinions were issued after the Texas legislature had enacted tort reform laws setting limits on civil lawsuits.

poorly

The study determined that physicians and hospitals had won __ percent of their appeals, most of which involved medical malpractice claims brought by injured patients or their families.

86

The Texas legislature in 1995 imposed modest ______ on campaign contributions to judges and judicial candidates and restricted the periods during which judges and their challengers could raise funds. A judge, however, still could receive as much as $30,000 from members of the same law firm and as much as $300,000 in total contributions from special interests through political action committees.

limits

Texas Supreme Court justices rarely answer such allegations directly, at least in the media. Instead, they say they simply follow the law as they see it, and they see it from a decidedly different viewpoint than the plaintiff-oriented justices who were accused of judicial activism in the 1970s. Because of the tort reform changes in civil justice laws since the 1970s, they also are deciding cases under more legal restrictions than justices of the _______ era.

earlier

the legislature, under both Democratic and Republican control, has repeatedly refused to scrap the partisan election system because both political parties have opposed change. Texas elects its judges supposedly to keep them accountable to the voters, Jefferson told The Atlantic. But most voters, particularly in urban counties with many judges on the election ballot, don’t even know who the judges and judicial candidates are, much less their qualifications. All too often, the former chief justice said, they vote for a straight partisan ticket because they “have no clue about the experience or __________ of these candidates.”

background

following the losses in the 2018 election of many incumbent Republican judges at the appellate and district court levels to Democratic challengers, with straight-ticket voting a factor. Straight-ticket voting, which allows a voter to cast one ballot for all the Republican or all the Democratic candidates for all the offices in an election, has since been ______ in Texas, beginning with the 2020 election. Texas’ district and appellate courts had “lost seven centuries of judicial experience at a single stroke,” he said. “Qualifications did not drive their (challengers’) election. Partisan politics did.”

banned

Methods of selecting state judges vary widely among the states. Texas is one of only a few states with a formal, ________ election system for all of its judges.

partisan

Stricter limits on the amount of campaign funds that judges and judicial candidates can raise from lawyers and other special interests could reduce the appearance of influence peddling in the judiciary and temper the high-stakes war between the trial lawyers and the business community for philosophical control of the courts. Campaign finance reform also could help build or restore public __________ in the impartiality of the judiciary. Such reform, however, may not improve opportunities for people of color to win election to the bench. Nor would it shorten the long election ballots that discourage Texans from casting informed votes in judicial races.

confidence

in retention elections, judges run on their own records rather than against other __________

candidates

Despite their popularity among people of color, district elections for judges still are viewed by many decision makers as a form of _____ politics that may be appropriate or desirable for legislative seats but not for judges. Judges, they argue, do not represent a particular constituency.

ward

Through a case-by-case process, the U.S. Supreme Court has applied the Bill of Rights to the states by way of the “due process of law” and the “equal protection of law” clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The failure of police or prosecutors to comply with specific procedures for handling a person accused of a crime may result in charges against an individual being _______ or a conviction being reversed on appeal.

dropped

Arrested suspects must be taken before a magistrate—usually a justice of the peace or a municipal court judge—to be formally informed of the offense or offenses with which they are charged and told their legal rights. Depending on the charges, a bond (bail) may be set to allow them to get out of jail and remain free pending their _____. Suspects have the right to remain silent, to consult with an attorney, to have an attorney present during questioning by law enforcement officers or prosecutors, and to be warned that any statement they make can be used against them in a trial. Defendants who cannot afford a lawyer must be provided with court-appointed attorneys at taxpayer expense. The U.S. Supreme Court extended many of these protections to the states in the landmark Miranda ruling in 1966.

trials

A jury can return a guilty verdict only if all jurors agree that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict—even after lengthy negotiations and prodding from the judge—the judge must declare a mistrial. In that case, the prosecution has to seek a new trial with another jury or drop the charges. In a jury trial, a defendant may choose to have the punishment set by the jury. If not, the _____ determines the punishment.

judge

Jury trials are required in capital murder cases, which are punishable by _____ or life in prison without parole. Executions in Texas used to be carried out by electrocution at the state prison unit in downtown Huntsville. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court halted executions in all states by striking down all the death penalty laws then on the books as unconstitutional. The high Court held that capital punishment, as then practiced, violated the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment because it could be applied in a discriminatory fashion. Not only could virtually any act of murder be punished by death under the old Texas law, but so could rape and certain other crimes.

death

In 1973, the Texas legislature rewrote the death penalty statute to try to meet the Supreme Court’s standards by defining capital crimes as murder committed under specific circumstances. The list was expanded later and now includes the murder of a ___ enforcement officer or firefighter who is on duty, murder committed during the course of certain other major crimes, murder for hire, murder of more than one person, murder of a prison guard or employee, murder committed while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution, and murder of a child younger than age 6.

law

A jury that has found a person guilty of capital murder must answer certain questions about the defendant before choosing between death or life imprisonment, the only punishments available. Jurors must consider whether a convicted murderer will be a continuing danger to society as well as whether there were mitigating circumstances, including evidence of intellectual __________, before deciding punishment.

disability

The first execution under the 1973 Texas law was carried out in 1982. By then, the legislature, acting in 1977, had changed the method of execution from the electric chair to the intravenous injection of a lethal substance. Historically, the death penalty has enjoyed strong political popularity in Texas, which _____ the nation in executions. But it also has been the focus of increasing controversy in recent years.

leads

After capital murder, the most serious criminal offense is a _____-degree felony (e.g., aggravated sexual assault, noncapital murder or theft of property valued at $200,000 or more), punishable by a prison sentence of five to ninety-nine years or life. Second-degree felonies, such as theft of property valued at $100,000 to $200,000 or reckless injury to a _____, are punishable by two to twenty years in prison. Third-degree felonies, including theft of property valued at $20,000 to $100,000 or a drive-by shooting in which no one is _______, are punishable by two to ten years in prison. State jail felonies, which include many property crimes and drug offenses, are punishable by up to two years in a state-run jail or time in a community corrections program, each of which is supposed to emphasize ______________ as well as punishment.

first

child

injured

rehabilitation

Less _______ crimes are classified as Class A, B, or C misdemeanors. Crimes such as theft of cable service and some stalking offenses are examples of Class A misdemeanors and are punishable by a maximum $4,000 fine and one year in a county jail. Making terroristic threats or possessing as much as four ounces of marijuana are examples of Class B misdemeanors and carry a maximum sentence of 180 days in a county jail and a $2,000 fine. Class C misdemeanors include theft of property valued at less than $20 and assault without bodily injury. They are punishable by a maximum $500 fine.

serious

Capital murderers sentenced to life in prison before a significant change in state law in 2005 can be considered for parole after serving forty years. Those sentenced after the 2005 law, which imposed life without parole for capital murderers who are not sentenced to death, cannot be _______. The Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is appointed by the governor, makes all parole decisions.

paroled

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals must try to _______ the constitutional rights of convicts against the public welfare—a role that often puts the court at the center of major philosophical and political battles. The combatants on one side of the debate are the prosecutors—the elected district and county attorneys—who do not like to see the convictions they have won reversed. Judges of the trial courts also are sensitive to reversals, and so are the police and sheriff’s departments that arrest the defendants and provide the evidence on which criminal convictions are based.

balance