A Good Reason For More Appeals Court Districts
If you’ve ever looked at the district intermediate courts of appeal in Texas (there are 14), you’ve probably noticed that many of them have tremendously large jurisdictions and many have tremendous case loads.
And, of course, many include urban counties and rural counties with no real balance with regard to the actual population of the districts. In the recent past, some counties were even in two appellate districts simeltaniously.
Wile some may tout appointing judges as a good way to fix the problems with many of Texas’ appeallate courts which have started to tilt very far to the right, I’d advocate simply splitting some of the districts. They are huge. Many have somewhat odd county combinations.
Perhaps some change might make courts that more reflect the makeup of their areas, unlike what has happened with the 3rd Court in Austin over the past few years, which has tilted rightward at an astonishing pace:
The GOP maintained its 4-2 majority on the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals as three incumbent Republicans and Democratic civil lawyer Diane Henson earned six-year terms, according to unofficial final results posted Wednesday after the vote counting stretched into the early morning hours.
Justice David Puryear, a former misdemeanor prosecutor and trial judge who has served on the court since 2000, defeated Democrat Mina Brees, 56, an Austin civil lawyer, for Place 5 on the court, which reviews civil and criminal cases.
While Brees had some of her own difficulties late in the game (including that her son, NFL star Drew Brees, evidently decided to play the role of total jackass during the campaign over advertisements), it’s difficult to run a campaign for court of appeals seats that stretch across huge swaths of Texas and are little understood by the electorate.
If these courts were situated around smaller areas, they would perhaps be more relevant to the people, more prone to have oral argument on more cases, and cases would speed through the system more quickly.
While Republicans will claim that the cost of this would be too significant, I’d tend to disagree. I think it could be managed.
Written by Vince Leibowitz
If you like what you read here, please consider giving us a tip through Blog Patron or PayPal!
Visit Capitol Annex's Online Book Store!
If you liked that post, then try these...
Chris Bell Sues Rick Perry, Republican Governor's Association by Vince Leibowitz on November 15th, 2007
Chris Bell Joins D.C. Lobby Firm by Vince Leibowitz on March 19th, 2007
The Love Shack by Vince Leibowitz on January 19th, 2007
As The Heat On Him Rose, Bob Perry Pulled A Leininger by Vince Leibowitz on January 18th, 2007
O'Day Defeats Weber In HD 29 by Vince Leibowitz on January 17th, 2007
Popularity: 4% [?]
