Texas Judicial Branch

governor now it's time to talk about the third branch of government uh the court system or the judicial

branch uh and before we really get into the texas judicial system i would like to

talk a little bit about some overview of the legal system in general there are two types of laws

and which means there are really two types of court proceedings there is civil law

and there is criminal law and there are two separate things civil law concerns private non-criminal

cases so divorce lawsuit uh

somebody recklessly hit your car and uh you're you don't want to pay for it so

you sue the other person and they have to pay for it nobody's threatened with jail it is just just a

a court proceeding that determines who might have to pay for what

same way with the divorce in divorce proceedings nobody's going to end up in jail there's no punitive

punishments you just decide the terms of the divorce who gets what property who

has custody of kids or whatever but there's no um really guilt or innocence well i guess

there might be in a lawsuit but there is no criminal uh punishment

of course criminal law is exactly that it somebody has come or has been accused

of a crime and uh so you know speeding is a

it's a ticket but still you've been accused of speeding and you either pay the fine or go to court or whatever

theft burglary arson murder whatever those are criminal laws

those are um laws that are statutory they're on the books

and you know if you violate this law there could be criminal punishment if

you're convicted or if you uh plea bargain to a conviction

now where do laws come from they can come from different places first there's constitutional law

that's the law that's defined by the constitution the u.s constitution

and the texas constitution is what we were talking about here of course each state has their own

constitution uh so basically constitutional law defines the structure of the government

the roles of the government and the powers and limits to that government

it also provides um oftentimes a bill of rights which are

protections for the citizens against the power of government so that might be part of the limits

but basically you you generally aren't charged in a crime with violating a

constitutional law and if you are violating somebody's uh civil liberties

by uh filing the first amendment rights then that type of case oftentimes will

rise through the ranks to higher level courts but we'll talk about that later so the constitutional law basically it's

things in the constitution so it's very limited statutory law on the other hand is very

broad because it can be passed at any time it can be voted on by the state

legislature of texas or by the us congress in every legislative session so

that law can change evolve they can add new laws they can alter

laws uh you know adjust them so there are laws that are passed by the

u.s congress and or the texas legislature these are usually or local

governments these are usually most laws that are broken

the legislature got together you know the u.s legislature got together and decided that you know the legal drinking

age would be 21. so that's a statutory law so if you violate

that law you could face punishment so a statutory law is a law that is passed

by a legislative body and in in our situation what we're talking about it

would be the u.s congress the house representatives in the senate or the texas legislature okay which includes

the house representatives and the senate other types of laws are administrative

regulations those are laws and rules that govern governmental agencies that means

um these are these are rules placed upon uh

um businesses that are maybe overseen by the uh environmental protection agency

or the irs or something where you have to report certain things to the government or you have to do certain

things as a business or an organization that the government requires as far as part is the administration

so that's another type of law another type of law or the things that laws and courts base

their decisions on is something called court precedence a precedent a precedent

p-r-e-c-e-d-e-n-t is basically the concept that the first

time something is ruled upon or something happens then all future decisions must be made on

that original ruling or based on the precedent set in that original ruling

and it's all based on the latin legal term of star a decisis which means let the ruling stand or let the decision

stand in it what it means is one if this and

it usually has to do with federal courts or the supreme court or the u.s supreme court or state supreme

court and what it means is uh if during a trial or an appeal which we'll

talk about later the supreme court decides that it is

illegal to you know i'm just going to use a crazy example right here it's illegal to wear

uh a yellow shirt on friday let's just say that and

so somebody was convicted of charged with a crime of wearing a yellow shirt on um

on friday and uh and so they go to court they're convicted and they appeal and eventually it goes to the supreme court

and the supreme court said that is a that is a fair law and there's nothing wrong with it well that's a precedent and that means

in the future anybody that wears a yellow shirt on friday knows that it's a crime the courts and the juries and

everybody knows it's a crime so they will base their future decisions on that

original precedent and whoever wears a yellow shirt on friday will be convicted of wearing a yellow shirt on friday so

i left a silly example but that's kind of what it means it means if if if a

if a legal decision is upheld for the first time

then that means all future events that are similar to that legal that or whatever happened in that legal

decision should result in the same uh

trial result conviction or acquittal and then there are local codes and

ordinances which you know those are more like things like speeding and uh

and things like that or you know maybe rules regarding how

high your grass can get you know those are ordinances and local codes and while

they usually don't come with as harsh of penalties as statutory laws like if you get charged with the arson or something

they're still usually if you're convicted of those um local codes or ordinances it's usually

just a fine that you're you're forced to pay so so anyway

in the hierarchy of all these constitutional laws override statutory laws that means if a statutory law

conflicts with a constitutional law if you want to think about it this way you know the first amendment says uh

congress shall make no law uh limiting freedom of speech well if some

if congress decides to make a law that limits freedom of speech well and somebody is is uh arrested for it

and tried chances are it'll get thrown out because the constitutional law that

sets the precedent for freedom of speech overrides and is

over take takes precedent over the statutory law that congress passed

and then the statutory law takes precedence over administrative regulations so some administrative

regulation of a government agency is in conflict with a statutory law then

the statutory law takes priority and then administrative regulations take priority over local laws so local is at

the bottom but so there is a hierarchy and so

each lower law cannot go against or conflict with the

laws above it

now let's talk a little bit about the courts in court jurisdiction jurisdiction means basically

what types of cases does the court hear okay and there's here's a few that we're

going to talk about original jurisdiction this is the first court to hear the case

and usually it's determining the verdict guilty or innocent and this is usually a

a state district court or justice of the peace or a municipal court a city court and so

if you decide you want to steal a car and you steal that car and you get

caught the police catch you you're charged with auto theft

you will likely go to a state district court that's the first court to hear the case

and when you go to that court there will be a jury there will be the judge and there will be you know the prosecutor

and the defense attorney and all the all the people you see on all the television shows

and so that is original jurisdiction that's the first court to hear the case and that determines

the verdict guilty or innocent or a mistrial or whatever it could be

another type is appellate jurisdiction this is where that original jurisdiction

court if there are problems in that the person who lost the verdict it can be the

prosecutor it can be the defendant usually the defendant can appeal to a higher court and say

look i was cheated out of this here's why so the appellate courts which is the

next level up reviews the original jurisdiction or lower court's decisions and actions it's

not a new trial they don't hear new evidence they don't even usually hear from

anybody face to face what they do is they get all of the transcripts and all

of the paperwork from the original jurisdiction trial and they can get documents and court

briefs from the different attorneys the prosecutor and the defense attorney and then you know arguing that their side is

right or wrong and so then the appellate courts review what happened in that trial

and determine whether it was a fair trial or not if uh maybe they read in the transcripts

and the uh the prosecutor did something that was unethical or brought forth

evidence that wasn't uh allowed in the trial well then the appellate court if that's true can

overturn the conviction based on the fact that rules were broken

legal rules were broken within the trial and that's basically kind of what they're um looking for whether legal rules legal

precedents were violated in the trial so um appellate courts they just look at

the lower courts usually original jurisdiction courts

and make sure everything was done correctly then there's a now some appellate courts

can hear the original jurisdiction courts but it's very rare and we'll talk about that in a minute exclusive

jurisdiction means that only that certain court can hear a specific type of case there's something that the u.s

has called maritime court which here's cases that uh involve anything that happens at sea

and so that's exclusive i mean that's the only kind of court uh court cases they hear

now as far as the judicial hierarchy in texas hierarchy means basically

rank um we have uh there's three major levels of state courts

at the top is a bifurcated texas supreme court then

below it is the texas court of appeals and below that the state district courts who

have the original jurisdiction usually on major crimes thing if if you commit a major crime or

you know somebody that committed a major crime like assault arson murder

uh armed robbery something like that their trial will most likely be in state

district court now what that's the original jurisdiction now as i said about appellate courts once that trial is over

and let's say for instance in the state district court the person charged with a crime is convicted well if that happens

that person if he feels like that he or she feels like that they've been wronged or there was some violation of

their rights or some mis

some kind of a legal uh rule was violated in their trial that

caused them to be convicted they can appeal and so that appeal goes to the texas

court of appeals now the texas court of appeals doesn't have to hear every single appeal that's sent to them

there's a there's a process by which they uh they filter out the bogus ones and the ones that don't really have any

of validity and then they will finally hear those that okay that might be a

real issue so they will see look at those and decide whether the

trial decision or verdict will stand or not and once that happens the next step if

still something happens that is not um to the liking of the the person that was

convicted or to the prosecutors that lost the texas court of appeals it goes to the texas supreme court now

here's where it gets interesting the the texas the highest courts in texas are bifurcated that means there's

two separate ones whereas if you know anything about the united states court system there's one supreme court that's

it but in texas there are two one is called the texas supreme court

obviously they only hear civil cases well they hear civil cases and juvenile cases as

the final court of appeal in texas and then the other one only hears criminal cases it's called

the texas court of appeals so you have once you get past the texas court of appeals the 14 there

it branches whatever and it depends on which type of case

your case is if it's a civil case it'll go to texas supreme court if it's a criminal case and you were convicted of

murder and you're trying to get it overturned it will go to the texas court of criminal appeals

now below state district courts of which there are 472

there are 472 state district courts 14 courts of appeals and uh one well two

uh supreme courts this texas supreme court and the texas court of criminal appeals now below them are uh

multitudes of different types of courts municipal courts which are city courts city ordinances

speed limit courts things like that traffic violations justice of the peace corps which

generally here lower level minor crimes with

not much property value or and usually never any jail time

uh constitutional county courts they hold hearings on various types of courts but as i said usually lower level

things county courts at law your criminal and civil cases and they

also can hear appeals from justice of the peace corps so if you're convicted in a justice of

the peace court and you appeal you feel like you've been wronged it may be heard by the county courts at law

and then the final type of court that we're going to talk about here is probate courts and they just handle a

will somebody dies and they leave a will somebody dies and they live in an estate they determine you know they read the

will they analyze it and make sure everything's proper and they ensure that

the wishes of the person who drew up the will uh

is uh they're followed as best they can

so if you want to look at a flow chart sometimes people are visual learners as i am so this is what uh it looks like

the now you gotta remember there's two types of courts there's state courts and there's the federal court system the

national court system and the two are separate okay they don't cross paths

until possibly and very rarely at the very end

of a uh of a process so as you can see on the texas side under texas courts the

lowest level are municipal courts and justice courts and

from there they could they can appeal to the county courts and then uh you have the district courts

where those were almost just state district courts where almost all major crimes are uh tried

and that can be appealed to the court of appeals and if it goes beyond that

it goes to the court of criminal appeals or the state supreme court now on the federal side you have the u.s district

court much like the state district court yet usually the court of uh original jurisdiction they're the first

to hear the case then you have the circuit court of appeals which basically serves just like the texas court of appeals they hear the

appeals from the u.s district court and the u.s supreme court which is the highest court in the land

now there may be occasionally a situation where like a case in the court of texas court

of criminal appeals or the texas supreme court some way

applies or is tied in with the violation of some u.s constitutional principle

and if the supreme court determines that to be true the u.s supreme court determines that the texas court of

criminal appeals decision violates some part of the u.s constitution

the u.s supreme court may choose to hear that case on appeal so there will be one

more step above the texas court of criminal appeals or the texas supreme court it doesn't

happen often it's rare but there is those cases sometimes where

the final courts of texas the supreme court or the court of criminal appeals can go one more step and that would be

to the u.s supreme court now once the u.s supreme court makes its decision that is final

unless it is overturned in the future by another supreme court decision

um texas courts of appeals there are 14 of them as i said there are very very many

district courts but there are 14 courts of appeals and they all each have a number so you'd say the texas second

uh courts of appeal court of appeals is the fort worth area you see the number two

uh for our purposes uh if you're taking classes at angelina you are probably in

the ninth or the twelfth maybe the tenth and if you're in the houston area the

first or the 14th which uh the houston area has two because it is so large and there are so

many cases and so many courts you need another court of appeals but you can see

their geographic areas they cover geographic areas so if you live in beaumont down

lower uh right hand uh tip of texas then if you

appeal your court decision in in your district court in that area

uh then it would go to the ninth court of appeals ninth state court of appeals so it's whatever jurisdiction you are in

that will hear your court case

now real quick we're going to talk about the method of selecting

judges the judicial selection each state gets to choose their own

method okay there are different types of methods

one partisan elections candidates run under political party affiliation so a person running for

judge a district judge or a court of appeals judge or a supreme court or criminal appeals judge runs by saying

okay i am a democrat or i am a republican please vote for me so it's partisan

okay they are they identify with the political party in the election process that's how texas does theirs but we'll

get to that in a second then there's non-partisan elections where the candidates are elected by the

people but are not allowed to run under a party affiliation

okay so you can run uh for the court of criminal appeals but when you put out signs or you do a

commercial or you run an ad or the ballot comes out there is no designation

of a political party so non-partisan then there's legislative elections where

judges are selected by the state legislatures okay judges

they they put forth their name the legislature

looks through it takes advice from the state bar which are it was the legal organizations

other judges and they determine whether they try to find the best possible candidate and then the legislature votes

on it then there's the gubernatorial appointment judges are appointed by the

governor and sometimes that can be with the legislative approval usually i believe it is

because i don't think any state wants a single person a single governor to by themselves be

the only person that is allowed or possibly choose a

position as important as a judge and then finally there's assisted

appointments called the missouri plan which uh a commission

of people that are qualified lawyers judges things like that they submit

qualified candidates to the governor who appoints from that list so it's a governor's appointment at first but

after the first term that person serves that judge serves four years or however long

then that person is up for re-election just a yes no vote do we keep that

person or do we not there's nobody running against that person it's just yes

the people will vote that person up and they will say yes and that judge

stays in for another term if they vote no and that judge is not um retained then

the governor will appoint from a list again that the commission from a list that the commission

submits so it just starts the process over again now

most all judges in texas are elected in a partisan election

meaning they will be you will see signs out saying vote for

mary smith as the texas state district judge or

john jones for you know state supreme court

now the argument in favor of partisan judicial elections is the most democratic way to do it

people understand partisan uh affiliation uh voters are capable

the belief is in this system that voters are capable of selecting qualified

judges okay that they understand people they can know somebody's background and decide

they're a good judge or not and vote based on that

the argument against that is that to run especially in a statewide

office like uh state supreme court or criminal court of criminal appeals or even the appeals

court or even a district uh judge has to run

and persuade people to elect them so they have to raise money okay

especially in statewide elections they have they need fundraising so that means that people are going to

give them money oftentimes special interests groups

lawyer groups of business groups will give them money now

while it is illegal to do a what they call quid pro quo i'll give you money judge

you make a decision that benefits me that's quote unquote illegal

but unless the judge says outwardly that that's why they made their decision then

there's no way to prove it so the problem here with elected judges is that

in the process of raising money when it time becomes time to make a decision

while all judge judicial decisions should be based just on facts you know

if it's close call and you know the judge is having a you know really tough time making a decision well what happens

if he realizes that one side gave him a hundred thousand dollars for his election

and he knows that if he rules against that group or that person that gave him a

hundred thousand dollars that it's very likely that person will give that hundred thousand dollars in the next election to his opponent

so it might sway or influence the decision of the um

the judge also

judges are under pressure um to make judicial decisions to please their voters may not be just a money

thing it may be just a popularity thing if you are an unpopular person in your

community in your county in the district that you're being tried and everybody you know you're one of

those bad apples of the community and nobody likes you and you're charged with a crime that you

are innocent of and even the evidence says that you're innocent

the judge might because if he allows the courts to

work in such a way to con to set you free which he should because the

evidence does not point to conviction that would make all the people in the community mad because they want you in

jail so that person simply because he's unpopular

might be wrongly convicted because the judge

doesn't want to look bad in the eyes of the voters so there's a lot going on with electing judges

personally if you want the opinion of kevin wooten

government instructor history instructor um these are the worst kinds of elections

texas has the worst type of uh judicial selection by electing in partisan elections i

would be a look because most people who vote they have a hard time knowing the qualifications of people who run for

congress and even people who run for president they're not going to most people are not going to know the qualifications of

who's running for [Music] their local judgeships and their local

uh to leave their local courts uh so a combination i like the missouri

plan myself that kind of combines elections with being appointed you know

good qualified judges being you know put forth by

a bipartisan group of experts or people who know what they're

looking for in a judge and then the governor decides and then that judge can be put up for election after their first

term to me that's that makes the most sense but until we change the constitution of

the state of texas we will always have partisan elections for judges

uh and here's a good good little chart it's just a map that shows the different types of elections and how many states

have different types of not elections but the way they choose the judges

as you can see partisan elections the kind texas has not a few yeah one two three four five

seven looks like eight new mexico texas louisiana alabama illinois ohio west virginia and

pennsylvania it seems like a blue has

some of the most with non-partisan elections meaning they're they're elected but they can't claim a

a political party affiliation and then merit selections meaning

you i think you're just put forth by a commission and chosen by the governor maybe with

legislative approval and then that combined that that missouri method is the purple so there's

quite a few that does that including mmo in the middle of the country missouri because that was their original

system

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