South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 1, Ed. 1, September, 2004 Page: 6 of 12
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Chief Justice
Phillips Joins South
Texas Faculty
Continued from Page 1
and 2002. He served with
distinction until April of
2004 when he announced
his retirement effective in
September of 2004. He is
also a member of the
American Law Institute
(AU).
On his way out of the
court, Justice Phillips is
able to reflect on some of
the changes that have oc-
curred in Texas law during
his tenure on the court, and
some things that he feels
still need to be changed.
The most major change
that has occurred in the
law in Texas over the last
several years has been the
change from a common
law system to a statute-
based system. This move-
ment has been going on all
over the country and has
meant significant changes
in the law all over the
United States. This pro-
cess is continuing in
Texas, and the hope is that
as laws become statute
based, more predictability
will come into the legal
system.
For Justice
Phillips, the
most impor-
tant cases
decided dur-
ing his time
on the court
have dealt
with school
finance re-
form.
For Justice Phillips, the
most important cases that
have been decided during
his time on the court deal
with school finance re-
form. Briefly, the issue
here is how school districts
in Texas will get the
money they need to oper-
ate. More wealthy dis-
tricts (usually school
districts in more afflu-
ent areas) are able to
spend more, while less
wealthy districts are not.
The issue has been con-
troversial in Texas be-
cause some do not be-
lieve anything should be
done about this, while
others agree on the need
for reform, but debate
the proper way to make
the system fairer to stu-
dents and taxpayers.
During Justice Phillips
time on the court, many
decisions were rendered
on this complex issue,
and to this point, the
system that will emerge
to fund Texas schools
has yet to be unveiled.
Finally, Justice
Phillips was involved in
a movement that that
has been gathering
steam in the state to re-
form the way judges get
to the bench. The
present system has
judges being elected by
partisan elections. Like
all schemes, it has its
pluses and minuses. On
the plus side, those in
favor of the system
point out that elected
judges tend (on the
whole) to be more ac-
commodating and sensi-
tive to lawyers and citizens
in their court than their ap-
pointed counterparts. Like
all elected officials, they
are aware of the possibil-
ity that bad press may be
detrimental to their career.
Also, Justice Phillips
points out, partisan judges
are able to rely on the
strength in numbers that
political parties bring to
the table. For example, if
financing for the judicial
branch in Texas is set to be
cut, judges can motivate
their party to stop it, mean-
ing that they will have the
help of their fellow Repub-
licans/Democrats in the
state legislature and possi-
bly the Governor's office.
Basically, this means that
affiliated judges are never
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More Books
First-year student Daniel Brown joined the crowd in purchasing books to begin the Fall 2004
semeseter. Most student spent an average of$400-$500 on back to school books and
supplies. Every year used books which run 20 percent cheaper are snapped up quickly.
on an island, and are not
forced to fight alone on bu-
reaucratic matters. How-
ever, critics point out many
problems with the system.
First, the fact that a parti-
san judge has presided
over a case may lead an
aggrieved party to ques-
tion the judge's motives.
A loser may wonder if he/
she lost on the merits or
because the issue in the
case was one that the judge
was opposed to on party
grounds. Second, the sys-
tem leads to some instabil-
ity in the system. For in-
stance, as Texas has gone
from being a state largely
controlled by the Demo-
crats to being largely con-
trolled by the Republicans,
many judges have obvi-
ously lost their seats in this
shift. Justice Phillips
points out that elected
judges have proven par-
ticularly sensitive to this
shift (the defeat rate for
judges is much higher than
the defeat rate for legisla-
tors). Critics wonder if
this is due to the fact that
judges are often voted for
or against simply on party
lines, with little critical
analysis by the voters
(since judges are some-
what enigmatic figures to
the voting public). And
they wonder if this system
is allowing good qualified
judges to be voted out
based on nothing more
than party affiliation. Fi-
nally, critics point out that
in a court system which
has docket sheets
crammed with cases, forc-
ing judges to go out and
campaign may actually
exacerbate the problem.
Meaning, is it fair to the
citizens or the judges to
have a system where a
judge's campaigning
keeps him out of the court,
further backing up already
crowded docket sheets?
Justice Phillips, and
others, have advocated a
hybrid system whereby the
governor appoints judges
who are then subject to
being voted out for poor
performance. The hope is
that this system will take
some of the good aspects
of appointment of judges
and mix them with the
good points of elected
judges, all the while mini-
mizing the bad aspects.
Justice Phillips points out
that several states already
employ this system, and no
Continued on p. 10
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Hennessey, Patrick J., III. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 1, Ed. 1, September, 2004, newspaper, September 2004; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144566/m1/6/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.