Love is a partner at this corporate law firm. He headed Houston-area fundraising for the ’96 re-election of Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips. Texas state judges are elected to office through expensive partisan campaigns. Much of the money these judges raise comes from lawyers and litigants who have cases in their courtrooms. With Love’s aid, Chief Justice Phillips raised $1.3 million in ’96, taking at least 43 percent of these funds from interests with cases before his court. Phillips says he opposes this practice, yet he was not compelled to engage in it: his opponent raised just $20,056. Love’s firm, which argues a steady stream of cases before the Texas Supreme Court is a big part of the problem. Locke Liddell & Sapp lawyers are the third largest source of docket-tainted political contributions to Texas Supreme Court justices. Bush’s top political advisor, Karl Rove, ran the campaigns of many of these Texas Supreme Court justices. Though this judicial-selection system is a cause of national embarrassment, Bush supports the status quo.