Government Institutions in Texas Many people believe the Texas Judicial Branch needs refurbishing for the 21st century. However, the Texas Judicial Branch operates efficiently now because of the way Texas has set up its Judicial Branch and court system. The reason for this is because Texas has structured layers of courts and those layers of courts allow cases ideal time to be heard, which works efficiently and adequately for the court system. At times, those five sections of the Texas court structure overlap because they all proceed to a higher level if needed. Those levels are local trial courts, county trial courts, state trial courts, state intermediate appellate courts and the state 's highest appellate courts. The Judicial Branch also …show more content…
As of 2012, only fourteen percent of judges were Latino and what is even more disturbing is that only two percent are African American. Nevertheless, the percentage is small, and that has raised concern within minority groups that feel the "larger partisan judicial races make it difficult for minorities to get elected to judgeships, and that Texas judges do not reflect the diversity of the state." (Champagne & Harpham, 2013, p. 292) Ultimately, this will change over decades more and more, as minorities in Texas become the …show more content…
282) Since Texas has a process for criminal law, some steps are followed before a trail is declared. First, there is usually a person who commits a misdemeanor or felony, and law enforcement decides to charge the suspect with a crime. Once a charge has been filed against an individual then a grand jury will determine if there is sufficient evidence to hand down an indictment against a suspect. If there is, then usually the defendant goes to trial. However, a defendant might accept a plea bargain from the prosecution before trial, because the evidence against them is overwhelming. If that is not the case, the prosecution will have to prove their case to a jury beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed a crime, and the defendant should have to serve jail or prison time for their punishment as a result of their crime. In conclusion, many people believe the Texas Judicial Branch needs refurbishing for the 21st century. However, the Texas Judicial Branch operates efficiently now despite some minor issues that critics perceive as inadequate for the 21st century. Perhaps in the future, some areas of our judicial system could be streamlined to better meet the needs of our society as we grow our ever more diverse society here in the state of Texas. Until
The second portion of this chapter 11 present and discusses the courts in Texas. The area gives the constitution utilized as a part of Texas. It shouts that Texas utilizes the 1876 law. This chapter also talks about many executives and also the Texas representative. It quickly examines ladies governors that have been in office and their modes and method for operation.
Texas constitution is almost very similar to the US Constitution in the sense of the Bill of Rights. Both the US constitution and the Texas constitution are separated into the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The legislative branch is the brand of the Senate and House of representative, the judicial branch is the branch where there are district courts appeals courts in the US Supreme Court, and the executive branch is where the executive president elected official the Vice President are in. Also they are both considered a separation of powers. This phrase refers to assigning specific powers to the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government; system which means they both have separate institutions that share
The Supreme Court made a mistake when they decided with the University of Texas; no college should take in race as a factor when selecting applications of students. In 2007, two female high school students applied to the University of Texas; one of the girls being Miss Abigail N. Fisher. Abigail was a caucasian, in the top 12% of her school at Stephen Austin High School, but she was denied by the University of Texas along with a friend of her’s. However,
The Texas government only has power that is stated in the constitution. The Texas constitution is based on the United States Constitution. The current constitution sits on seven basic principles (Popular Sovereignty, Limited Government, Republicanism, Individual Rights, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Federalism). It is these principles that keep the government in check so that power does not get abused. That should not be a problem because people have the right to abolish their government is they need
The Texas legislative process is governed by the Texas constitution as well as the House of Representative and the Senate. Its primary function is to enact laws to provide for the health, welfare, education, environment, and economic and general well-being of the citizens of Texas. It also establishes public policy through the passage of bills and resolutions and proposes amendments to the state constitution, which are then submitted to the voters for approval or disapproval. When a bill is proposed, it must go through the legislative process before it becomes a law. The legislative process is very long and has many steps.
The Texas State Court system is very structured. There are 5 levels of the Texas Courts. Level 5 starts with Justice and Municipal Courts. Justice Courts have Jurisdiction over civil actions, small crimes, and criminal misdemeanors. The Municipal courts have jurisdiction over municipal ordnance cases and criminal misdemeanors that are only punishable by fine.
County Commissioner’s Court In each Texas county is a County Commissioner’s Court with four commissioners and a judge. The commissioners are voted on by the people in one of the four districts in the county. All the commissioners serve four-year terms, including the elected judge. 10.
The framers of the Texas Executive established a system that was designed to check the powers of the government. As opposed to the US Constitution that vested the power of the executive in the president of the nation (Berry, 1385), the Texas Constitution sought to ensure that the state did not have the excess powers. As such, they came up with a plural system where a variety of individuals make up the executive branch of the state (Texas State Government at a Glance). While the governor of the state remains as the highest ranking officials in the state, they hold the least of powers in the plural system.
The three levels within the federal courts are: the U.S. Magistrate Courts, the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The magistrate courts are the lowest level and as such are limited to trying misdemeanors, setting bail amounts and assisting the district courts. The U.S. District Courts are the federal branch of original jurisdiction courts. These are responsible for criminal trials and giving guilty or not guilty verdicts. The U.S. Courts of Appeals are responsible for all the appeals from U.S. district courts.
The Rhetorical Strategies of a Latina Judge's Speech To End the Lack of Representation Throughout the diversity in the United States, there is a multitude of factors that underestimate and terminate the presence or idea of women and minorities in government roles. In current times, awareness of gender equality and excluded minorities has rose to an all- time high. Many are advocating that the way our country sees and treats intersectionality needs to change for the better. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an advocator by spreading this public announcement through a piece of a speech. She discusses the obstacles she and other minorities face to place higher on the social ladder and to be represented during a speech at the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial
The Constitution of 1876 was toward the end in the development of a new, restructured and revised constitution in Texas, yet it was not the last attempt to revise the natural law of Texas. Pressure begin to build to change and streamline the Texas Constitution in the late 1960s. By 1969, fifty-six obsolete and out dated provisions were revoked, including a whole article. This called for a more fundamental overhaul and restructuring of the Constitution, which led to an extensive and prolonged process of constitutional revision that began in the 1970s. Efforts during this time were imperative for two reasons: it explained a long-standing concern whether the legislature had the constitutional right to convene as a constitutional convention; and secondly, the Texas Constitutional Revision Commission provided a thorough revision of the state constitution that served as the foundation for a new
To win any kind of election/re-election candidates must work to please voters. Here in Texas where a majority of people have a strong pro-death penalty stance, judges must also have a strong stance regarding the death penalty if they would like to remain in office. This is concerning because judges will be more likely to seek he death penalty for the convicted so they can create a record of toughness to win over voters. Some elected judges are sometimes of lesser quality than appointed judges in other states, but since they have a record of toughness everything else is thrown out the window. District attorneys also try to maintain a tough reputation as well.
Many people argue that descriptive representation means the job could go to someone less qualified simply because of their gender or color of their skin; however, the job is already not based entirely on merit. In our increasingly partisan government, a judge’s political affiliations, party activity, and ideology are playing a bigger and bigger role in judicial selection. Descriptive representation can be a solution to this. By focusing the search on groups such as women or Latinos, political ideology becomes less of a factor because they are then searching for simply the most qualified candidate. Some argue that by focusing on group affiliation judicial selection, a more qualified candidate would be passed over.
Besides the Supreme Court, there are also lower courts that work to help the Supreme Court with all the work that
i) Must be independent & a-political (a) 57% of voters are very concerned that Federal judges make decisions based upon political agenda rather than rightful