Hecht Donors Frequently Practice Before High Court

When Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht defended one-time girlfriend Harriet Miers and former Texas Lottery Commission chairwoman right, left, and center upon her doomed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, no one probably thought it would lead to multiple controversies surrounding Hecht and corporate payola.

But, as may things with Republicans, it has:

The state’s top law firms and their attorneys donated $447,000 to help Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht defend himself against charges that he abused his judicial office to promote Harriet Miers, his one-time girlfriend, for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The biggest donors were the firm Vinson & Elkins and its attorneys at $30,000. Baker Botts and its employees, including former Texas Supreme Court Justice Tom Phillips, kicked in another $26,000, according to Texas Ethics Commission reports filed Sunday by Justice Hecht.

Both Houston-based law firms routinely practice in front of the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court.

Locke Liddell & Sapp, the Dallas law firm that Ms. Miers returned to this year after serving as President Bush’s White House counsel, contributed $25,100 to Justice Hecht’s legal defense fund.

Justice Hecht successfully fought a State Commission on Judicial Conduct sanction alleging he improperly used his official position to promote Ms. Miers.

On another interesting note, it seems Hecht has sided with his contributors a whopping 89 percent of the time when it came to pending litigation before the court:

In all signed opinions issued since March, Justice Hecht sided with these large donors to his personal legal defense fund a staggering 89% of time. In only one case of the nine cases involving parties who contributed to his defense did Hecht vote against the interests of his donors.

Hecht, of course, has been criticized for not recusing himself from cases his donors participated in. I’d imagine, however, if he did that, he probably wouldn’t have been involved in many cases.

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