Supreme Court of Texas

Supreme Court of Texas
Seal of the Texas Supreme Court
Established	1840
Country	Texas , United States
Location	Austin, Texas
Authorized by	Texas Constitution
Decisions are appealed to	Supreme Court of the United States
Website	http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/
Chief Justice
Currently	Wallace B. Jefferson
Since	September 14, 2004

Texas Supreme Court Building

The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters (including juvenile delinquency which the law considers to be a civil matter and not criminal) in the state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort for criminal matters.

The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. The Court meets in Downtown Austin, Texas in a building located on the state Capitol grounds, behind the Texas State Capitol.

Regulation of the legal profession in Texas

By statute, the Texas Supreme Court has administrative control over the State Bar of Texas, an agency of the judiciary. The Texas Supreme Court has the sole authority to license attorneys in Texas, and also appoints the members of the Board of Law Examiners which, under instructions of the Supreme Court, administers the Texas bar examination.

Justices of the Court

The Court has a Chief Justice and eight associate justices. Each member of the Court must be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of Texas, licensed to practice law in Texas, and must have practiced law (or have been a lawyer and a judge of a court of record together) for at least ten years. The Clerk of the Court is appointed by the Justices and serves a four-year term.

Election of members of the Court

The Chief Justice and the associate justices are elected to staggered six-year terms in state-wide partisan elections. When a vacancy arises the Governor of Texas may appoint Justices, subject to Senate confirmation, to serve out the remainder of an unexpired term until the next general election. As of 2010, six of the current Justices, a majority, were originally appointed by Governor Rick Perry. The current Justices, like all the Judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, are all Republican.

The place numbers have no special meaning as all justices are elected state-wide, except that the Chief Justice position is considered "Place 1".

Women on the Court

Hortense Sparks Ward, who became the first woman to pass the Texas Bar Exam in 1910, was appointed Special Chief Justice of an all-female Texas Supreme Court 15 years later. All of the court's male justices recused themselves from a case involving the Woodmen of the World fraternal organization, and, since nearly every member of the Texas Bar was a member of that organization and received insurance benefits from it, no male judges or attorneys could be found to hear the case. After ten months of searching for suitable male replacements, Governor Pat Neff decided to appoint a special court composed of three women to decide the case. This court, consisting of Ward, Hattie Leah Henenberg, and Ruth Virginia Brazzil, met for five months and ultimately ruled in favor of Woodmen of the World.

On July 25, 1982, Ruby Kless Sondock became the court's first regular female justice, when she was appointed to replace the Associate Justice James G. Denton who had died of a heart attack. Sondock served the remainder of Denton's term, which ended on December 31, 1982, but did not seek election to the Supreme Court in her own right. Rose Spector became the first woman elected to the court in 1992 and served until 1998 when she was defeated by Harriet O'Neill.

Current Justices

Justice	Party Affiliation	Place	Date Service Began	Term Ends
Wallace B. Jefferson	Republican	Chief Justice	April 18, 2001	2014
Don R. Willett	Republican	2	August 24, 2005	2018
Debra Lehrmann	Republican	3	June 21, 2010	2016
John P. Devine	Republican	4	January 1, 2013	2018
Paul W. Green	Republican	5	January 1, 2005	2016
Nathan Hecht	Republican	6	January 1, 1989	2018
Jeffrey S. Boyd	Republican	7	December 3, 2012	2014
Phil Johnson	Republican	8	April 11, 2005	2014
Eva Guzman	Republican	9	October 8, 2009	2016

History of membership of the Court

Main article: History of membership of the Texas Supreme Court

Succession of seats

Chief Justice (Place 1)
Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876
G. Moore	Democratic	1878-1881
Gould	Democratic	1881-1882
Willie	Democratic	1882-1888
Stayton	Democratic	1888-1894
Gaines	Democratic	1894-1911
Brown	Democratic	1911-1915
N. Phillips	Democratic	1915-1921
Cureton	Democratic	1921-1940
W.F. Moore	Democratic	1940-1941
Alexander	Democratic	1941-1948
Hickman	Democratic	1948-1961
Calvert	Democratic	1961-1972
Greenhill	Democratic	1972-1982
Pope	Democratic	1982-1985
Hill	Democratic	1985-1988
T. Phillips	Republican	1988-2004
Jefferson	Republican	2004-present

Place 2
Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876
Gould	Democratic	1876-1881
Stayton	Democratic	1881-1888
Walker	Democratic	1888-1889
Henry	Democratic	1889-1893
Brown	Democratic	1893-1911
Ramsey	Democratic	1911-1912
N. Phillips	Democratic	1912-1915
Yantis	Democratic	1915-1918
Greenwood	Democratic	1918-1934
Sharp	Democratic	1934-1952
Culver	Democratic	1953-1965
Pope	Democratic	1964-1982
T. Robertson	Democratic	1982-1988
Doggett	Democratic	1989-1994
Owen	Republican	1995-2005
Willett	Republican	2005-present

Place 3
Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876
G. Moore	Democratic	1876-1878
Bonner	Democratic	1878-1882
West	Democratic	1882-1885
S. Robertson	Democratic	1885-1886
Gaines	Democratic	1886-1894
Denman	Democratic	1894-1899
Williams	Democratic	1899-1911
Bibrell	Democratic	1911-1913
Hawkins	Democratic	1913-1921
Pierson	Democratic	1921-1935
Critz	Democratic	1935-1945
Simpson	Democratic	1945-1949
Harvey	Democratic	1949-1950
Calvert	Democratic	1950-1961
Steakley	Democratic	1961-1980
Wallace	Democratic	1981-1988
Cook	Republican	1988-1992
Spector	Democratic	1993-1998
O'Neill	Republican	1999-2010
Lehrmann	Republican	2010-present

Place 4
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
Sadler	Democratic	1918-1920
Powell	Democratic	1920-1927
Leddy	Democratic	1927-1933
Smedley	Democratic	1933-1954
Walker	Democratic	1954-1975
Doughty	Democratic	1975-1976
Yarbrough	Democratic	1976-1977
Barrow	Democratic	1977-1984
R. Gonzales	Democratic	1984-1998
A. Gonzales	Republican	1999-2000
Jefferson	Republican	2001-2004
John P. Devine	Republican	2013-present

Place 5
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
Montgomery	Democratic	1918-1919
Kittrell	Democratic	1919-1921
Hamilton	Democratic	1921
Short	Democratic	1925-1934
Taylor	Democratic	1935-1950
Wilson	Democratic	1950-1956
McCall	Democratic	1956
Norvell	Democratic	1957-1968
Reavley	Democratic	1968-1977
Chadick	Democratic	1977-1978
Campbell	Democratic	1978-1988
Culver	Republican	1988
Hightower	Democratic	1988-1996
Abbott	Republican	1996-2001
Rodriguez	Republican	2001-2002
Smith	Republican	2002-2004
Green	Republican	2005-present

Place 6
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
Taylor	Democratic	1919-1921
Randolph	Democratic	1921-1923
Bishop	Democratic	1923-1927
Critz	Democratic	1927-1935
Hickman	Democratic	1935-1948
Garwood	Democratic	1948-1958
Hamilton	Democratic	1959-1970
Denton	Democratic	1971-1982
Sondock	Democratic	1982
Kilgarlin	Democratic	1983-1988
Hecht	Republican	1989–present

Place 7
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
McClendon	Democratic	1918-1923
Stayton	Democratic	1923-1925
Speer	Democratic	1925-1929
Ryan	Democratic	1929-1937
Martin	Democratic	1937-1939
Slatton	Democratic	1939-1947
Hart	Democratic	1947-1950
Smith	Democratic	1950-1970
Daniel	Democratic	1971-1978
Spears	Democratic	1979-1990
Cornyn	Republican	1991-1997
Hankinson	Republican	1997-2002
Wainwright	Republican	2002-2012
Jeffrey S. Boyd	Republican	2012-present

Place 8
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
Sonfield	Democratic	1918-1921
Gallagher	Democratic	1921-1923
Blanks	Democratic	1923-1924
Chapman	Democratic	1924-1925
Nickels	Democratic	1925-1929
Sharp	Democratic	1929-1934
German	Democratic	1935-1941
Brewster	Democratic	1941-1957
Greenhill	Democratic	1957-1972
H. Phillips	Democratic	1972
S. Johnson	Democratic	1973-1979
Garwood	Republican	1978-1980
Ray	Democratic	1980-1990
Gammage	Democratic	1990-1995
Baker	Republican	1995-2002
Schneider	Republican	2002-2004
P. Johnson	Republican	2004-present

Place 9
Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A
Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945
Strong	Democratic	1918-1920
Spencer	Democratic	1920-1923
German	Democratic	1923-1925
Harvey	Democratic	1925-1943
Folley	Democratic	1943-1949
Griffin	Democratic	1949-1968
McGee	Democratic	1969-1986
Mauzy	Democratic	1987-1992
Enoch	Republican	1993-2003
Brister	Republican	2003-2009
Guzman	Republican	2009-present

Supreme Court Committees

Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT)

Created in 1997 JCIT was established to set standards and guidelines for the systematic implementation and integration of information technology into the trial and appellate courts in Texas.

JCIT approaches this mission by providing a forum for state-local, inter-branch, and public-private collaboration, and development of policy recommendations for the Supreme Court of Texas. Court technology, and the information it carries, are sprawling topics, and Texas is a diverse state with decentralized funding and decision-making for trial court technology. JCIT provides a forum for discussion of court technology and information projects. With this forum, JCIT reaches out to external partners such as the Conference of Urban Counties, the County Information Resource Agency, Texas.gov, and TIJIS (Texas Integrated Justice Information Systems), and advises or is consulted by the Office of Court Administration on a variety of projects.

Three themes consistently recur in the JCIT conversation: expansion and governance of electronic filing; the evolution and proliferation of court case management systems; and the evolution and governance of technology standards for reporting and sharing information across systems in civil, family, juvenile, and criminal justice.

The Founding Chair of JCIT from 1997-2009 was Peter S. Vogel, a partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP in Dallas, and since 2009 the JCIT Chair has been Justice Rebecca Simmons.

External links

• Official Website for the Texas Supreme Court
• The Texas Reports, the decisions of the Texas Supreme Court from 1846 to 1885, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Texas Judiciary page from The Handbook of Texas Online
• Texas Supreme Court Historical Society