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Texas is one of only eight states that hold partisan elections for their supreme courts. But seven out of the nine members on the Texas Supreme Court were first appointed by a state governor — meaning just two current members started on the court after being elected.
An appointed judge has to run again once the term of the position they assumed is over, but they almost always win.
“They run as the incumbent Republican member. And guess what, it’s worked like magic in this basically Republican state,” said Ron Beal, a professor emeritus at Baylor Law School.
The Texas general election is only weeks away, on Nov. 8. Texas voters will have the opportunity to choose whether to reelect or replace three justices who were initially appointed to their seats.
Most voters don’t know a lot about the judges up for election, so they tend to vote along party lines, Beal said. The Texas Supreme Court has not had a Democratic judge since the 1990s.
The Texas Supreme Court is the court of last resort for all civil cases. Any noncriminal case tried in the state can be appealed until it reaches the Texas Supreme Court; a decision made there is final.
Texas is one of just two states that have two types of courts of last resort. While the Texas Supreme Court deals with civil cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals is the final place for criminal cases.
“The docket, meaning the number of cases, would be so huge that nothing would get out in a timely fashion from the Supreme Court, and that is why they created the Court of Criminal Appeals,” Beal said.
Impact
The Texas Supreme Court has the power to make sweeping decisions that interpret the state’s constitution, impacting the lives of Texans across the state. This played out prominently during the pandemic when the court lifted the ban on evictions and debt collections, extended rent relief programs and routinely overturned local mask mandates.
The court has been an integral mechanism in keeping laws in place that restrict abortion access in Texas. Most recently, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state could enforce a 1925 abortion ban following the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The ruling makes abortion providers liable to lawsuits and financial penalties if they continue to perform the procedure. The court also ended the battle to block Senate Bill 8, which effectively bans abortions in Texas after about six weeks into a pregnancy, when it ended a series of legal challenges prompted by abortion providers.
Americans don’t choose all their judges in elections. Justices for the U.S. Supreme Court, for example, are appointed by presidents, not elected by voters. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently faced criticism that its rulings are not representative of the wants of the American people.
“This is an opportunity that we have for direct participation in democracy that we do not have at the federal level,” said John Murphy, a law professor at Texas A&M University. “People who are interested in the shape of the law and the future of the law and the interpretation of the law should, by all means, vote in the general elections for judges at any level, but especially in the Supreme Court of Texas.”
Who’s on the ballot this year?
There are three seats up for election this year. Judicial campaigns are different from other types of campaigns. Candidates tend to campaign on their experience and endorsements, and they avoid outlining how they will rule in cases because the state’s judicial code of conduct forbids candidates from making those kinds of pledges.
The best way to gauge what a judge will do is to look at the values of who appointed and endorsed them, said Beal, the former Baylor law professor.
Place 3
Debra Lehrmann is the Republican incumbent up for election in Place 3. She was appointed to the position by former Gov. Rick Perry in 2010 and has since been reelected twice. She is endorsed by Abbott, Texas Alliance for Life and the Texas Civil Justice League political action committee.
Erin Nowell is the Democrat challenging Lehrmann. She serves on the 5th District Court of Appeals. She is endorsed by the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, the Texas AFL-CIO and the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.
Place 5
Rebeca Huddle is the Republican incumbent and was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2020. This is her first time running for reelection. She is endorsed by Abbott, Texas Alliance for Life and the Texas Civil Justice League PAC.
Amanda Reichek is the Democrat running against Huddle. She serves on the 5th District Court of Appeals. She is endorsed by the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, the Texas AFL-CIO and the Texas AFT.
Place 9
Evan Young is the most recent appointee to the Texas Supreme Court after Abbott put him up for the position in November 2021. This is his first time running for reelection. He previously clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is endorsed by Abbott, Texas Alliance for Life and the Texas Civil Justice League PAC.
The Democrat challenging Young is Julia Maldonado. She is the Harris County presiding family court judge. She is endorsed by the Texas AFL-CIO and Texas AFT.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas AFT and the Texas Civil Justice League have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Texas is one of two states with two courts of last resort. The Texas Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort for civil matters. The terms of three supreme court justices will expire on December 31, 2022. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the state's court of last resort for criminal matters. The terms of three court of criminal appeals justices will expire on December 31, 2022. All six seats are up for partisan election on November 8, 2022. A primary was scheduled for March 1, 2022.
Texas is one of 30 states holding elections for state supreme court in 2022. This year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts are up for election. Of those, 64 are held by nonpartisan justices, 13 are held by Republican justices, and eight are held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Judges with expiring terms
This is a list of the justices who must stand for partisan election in 2022 in order to remain on the bench. Justices may choose not to stand for election. The list is subject to change if justices retire or are appointed.Texas Supreme Court
■ Rebeca Huddle
■ Debra Lehrmann
■ Evan Young
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
■ Scott Walker
■ Jesse McClure
■ Mary Lou Keel
Candidates and election results
Texas Supreme Court
Place 3
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Libertarian convention
Place 5
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Place 9
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Place 2
General election
The general election was canceled. Incumbent Mary Lou Keel won election in the general election for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 2.
Republican primary election
Place 5
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Place 6
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Voting information
See also: Voting in TexasCampaign finance
The section below contains data from financial reports submitted to state agencies. To view data for each court, click on the appropriate bar below to expand it. The data is gathered and made available by Transparency USA.
About the Texas Supreme Court
See also: Texas Supreme CourtThe Texas Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Texas for civil matters. As the court of last resort, the supreme court hears appeals of decisions in civil cases from lower courts. Its decisions are not subject to review by any other court.[1]
Political composition
This is the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election. Justices on the Texas Supreme Court are elected to their seats, and replacements are appointed by the governor in the case of midterm vacancies.
About the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
See also: Texas Court of Criminal AppealsThe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas.
Political composition of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
This is the political composition of the court heading into the 2022 election. Judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are elected to their seats, and replacements are appointed by the governor in the case of midterm vacancies.
Selection
See also: Partisan electionsThe nine justices of the supreme court and nine judges of the court of criminal appeals are selected in partisan elections. The elected justices and judges serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to continue serving. In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement until the next general election, in which he or she may compete to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term. If the legislature is in session when the appointment is made, the Texas State Senate must confirm the appointee. If the legislature is not in session, the appointee does not require state Senate confirmation.[2][3]
Qualifications
To serve on either court, a justice or judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a resident of Texas;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- between the ages of 35 and 75; and
- a practicing lawyer and/or judge for at least 10 years.[4]
While no judge older than 74 may run for office, sitting judges who turn 75 are permitted to continue serving until their terms expire.[4]
Selection of the chief justice or judge
The chief justice or judge of each court is selected by voters at large. He or she serves in that capacity for a full six-year term.[4]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
See also: Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and DissentersThe study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 9
- Number of cases: 90
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 82.2% (74)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justices Bland and Busby (10 each)
- Per curiam decisions: 28
- Concurring opinions: 11
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justices Guzman and Blacklock (3 each)
- Dissenting opinions: 17
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Boyd (6)
For the study's full set of findings in Texas, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State PartisanshipIn 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[5]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[6]
Texas had a Court Balance Score of 10.4, indicating Republican control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
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- Texas Supreme Court
- ↑ Texas Judicial Branch, "Supreme Court," accessed October 9, 2015
- ↑ Texas Judicial Branch, "The Supreme Court of Texas," accessed August 1, 2019
- ↑ The Texas Tribune, "Texas Senate confirms Brett Busby for Supreme Court post," March 20, 2019
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named general
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.