Payola Justice: How Texas Supreme Court Justices Raise Money from Court LitigantsHome

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ENDNOTES

  1. Under the Republic of Texas' Constitution (still recognized in secessionist pockets of West Texas), Congress picked supreme court justices. Subsequent state Constitutions flip-flopped between gubernatorial appointments and popular elections of justices. Popular elections have prevailed in every Texas Constitution since 1876.
  2. The other states are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Thirteen states rely on nonpartisan elections, while most others state supreme court justices are appointed. See "State Court Organization, 1993," U.S. Department of Justice, 1995.
  3. Don Yarbrough, elected to the court in 1976, was confused with perennial gubernatorial candidate Don Yarbrough and former U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough. Former Chief Justice Robert Calvert said he had the Calvert Whiskey drinkers' vote bottled up.
  4. See "Blind Justice," Texas Monthly, May 1987.
  5. When a firm hits this limit, its lawyers can keep making contributions of up to $50.
  6. See "Blind Justice," Texas Monthly, May 1987.
  7. See "The bar and the bench: too close for comfort?" Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 26, 1983.
  8. See "Judge halts order requiring justices to give testimony," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 10, 1986.
  9. The other states are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, N. Carolina, Pennsylvania and W. Virginia. Thirteen states rely on nonpartisan elections, while most other states appoint High Court Justices. See "State Court Organization, 1993," U.S. Department of Justice, 1995.
  10. The longest-sitting current justice, Democrat Raul Gonzalez, took office in October 1984.
  11. If the court issued 280 opinions in 1992 and 1993, and the average case involved seven lawyer and litigant parties, researchers would need to check for links between these 1,960 docket parties and the justices' campaign contributors. This is a huge task when no employer information is provided.
  12. Docket-linked parties almost certainly gave more money; employer data were not readily available for individuals who gave eight percent of the $9.2 million that the seven justices raised in the period studied.
  13. "A tale of high life on the high court," San Antonio Light, April 20, 1986.
  14. See "Showdown at the Supreme Court," Texas Insuror, Septmeber-October 1988.
  15. Justice Hecht concurred with the majority's result, albeit with a different rationale.
  16. See "Justice appears in fund-raising tape," Dallas Morning News, October 28, 1994; "GOP
  17. Candidates Hand Foes an Ethics Issue," Texas Lawyer, October 10, 1994.
  18. Arthur Andersen, Deloitte & Touche and Coopers & Lybrand.
  19. This is almost certainly an undercount. It is based just on information disclosed in contribution reports. A more thorough accounting of this money would require that the names of unidentified contributors be cross-listed with directories of Texas physicians (as was done with attorney directories).
  20. Priscilla Owen had just left Andrews & Kurth to run for the Supreme Court. She was backed by almost $15,000 from her old firm, which represented Petrofina defendants.
  21. Bob Wortham of Petrofina plaintiff firm Reaud, Morgan & Quinn gave $300 to Justice Owen.
  22. Again, the quality of contributions reporting back when Justices Craig Enoch, R, and Rose Spector, D, last ran in 1992 was so poor that they were excluded from this study.
  23. This is true even though some of these contributors provided relatively useless employer data, such as "investor," "retired" or "self."

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