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The Texas Judicial System

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The Texas judicial system is bifurcated, where there are two supreme courts to serve justice. While one of the “highest courts” serves justice to civil cases, the other serves justice to criminal cases. Tom Phillips, former chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court, stated “Of the ways you can elect judges, Texas has one of the worst systems” (Chammah). Judicial elections in Texas have been impacted greatly by campaign contributions from interests’ groups, PAC’s, and law firms. In addition, partisan elections and low voter knowledge has made it more facile for these interest group to lobby their way into the legislative branch, thus, spreading into the judicial branch where elections count the most. Texas elects’ judges, and the awareness …show more content…

Many state supreme courts like Texas, “are now dominated by conservative judges that favor corporate defendants over individual plaintiffs. Republican justices outnumber Democrat justices” (Corriher). Texas supreme court elections may very well cost more than congressional elections. Why? In partisan judicial elections, interests’ groups, who are usually trial lawyers and big business groups, fund judges that could be more “pro-business”, eventually so that they rule in favor of business policies. Because Texas officials are dominantly Republican, Republican judges have dominated and support “pro-business, pro-life, and anti-government” (Corriher). By labeling a judge as a Republican or a Democrat one can tell how little most voters know about how judges will decide about cases. If “voting based solely on a judicial candidate’s political party can lead to controversial results” …show more content…

Most of the “donations” that are given start from thousands and “there’s no limits on how much an individual can give” (Moyer). These vast amounts of money can impact judges court decisions in favor to the groups that funded their campaign elections. It is almost as judges are returning a favor in form of approving certain policies and ruling “pro-business”. Campaign contributions can lead to a corrupt government which now is being regulated by the Judicial campaign fairness act. This act is used to put “limitations on judicial campaign contributions” (lecture). The US Supreme Court has been aware and now has seen what money can buy in Texas, including justice. In Texas, citizens are concerned with politics, and justice for sale. Active reformers in Texas are currently working hard to reverse this result and help restore the ideologies that were once believed

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