Burkett's Attorney Running for Texas Supreme Court

Getting David Van Os elected to the Texas Supreme Court is not just about winning one race. It is about charging straight at the heart of Karl Rove's master plan.

From best-selling author James Moore's (author of Bush's Brain and Bush's War for Re-election) BuzzFlash essay, "Karl Rove's Master Plan: A One-Party America:"

"It began here in Texas when Rove was rebuilding the Republican Party in the Lone Star State. Rich people were asked to contribute to an organization called the Civil Justice League. They were billed as a grass roots political action committee that wanted to elect judges more sympathetic to the business community. And they did." See More.

"Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a/k/a the bidness lobby, is a major player and has effectively eviscerated the judiciary with a two-pronged attack. While round after round of "tort reform" was shoved through the legislature, closing off access to the courts and protecting corporations from liability for their misdeeds, Karl Rove was busy electing all nine state Supreme Court justices. So even if you should somehow manage to get into court, you are faced with a bench noted for its canine fidelity to corporate special interests."

As David says, "It is all part of a big picture." We Texans have a chance this year to fight back hard against Karl's plan to steal away the people's government from the people. Placing David Van Os on the Texas Supreme Court will be one of Karl's worst nightmares. We the people have the power to make it happen

Texas Democratic Veterans Endorse David Van Os
Statement of Texas Democratic Veterans
August 27, 2004

Texas Democratic Veterans was formed June 14, 2002, at the Texas Democratic Convention held in El Paso, Texas. This was at a time that at the Republican Convention Republican Congressman Sam Johnson stated, “Democrats did not think like Americans”. We are proud that we were the first Democratic veterans group to be formed in the entire country. …

Today in Austin, as she was in her past, Texas is besieged by tyrants that seek to undermine her Constitution. The self-proclaimed goal is to exterminate dissent by exterminating those of us who dare oppose them. They divided the Citizens of Texas among themselves, behind closed doors, to increase their own personal and political power. Like the Dictator of years past they undermine our Constitution and thus deprive us of the fundamental political right of Representation.

Our members have served or have seen their loved ones serve from World War II to our current War in Iraq and against terrorism. We recognize and honor our loved ones service to our country by supporting us and by suffering with us for the defense of our country by separation from their loved ones and financial hardships from low pay and benefits. We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and Texas with our lives. We do not think that this oath ends upon receiving a DD214. It is a sacred oath, rooted deeply in both the American and Texan Character and history.

We now swear that NEVER AGAIN will we allow our honor and our patriotism or the honor and patriotism of our fallen Comrades be questioned and it to go unanswered. We now swear, like our forefathers, to defend Texas and Our Nation from all who would seek to undermine our Constitution and our ideals for their own personal interest or their narrow Partisan Political Purposes and from all enemies foreign and domestic.

We have found in David Van Os an intelligent and able ally and true champion of the people and their Constitutional Rights, especially their right to trial by jury. Like us, David has an abiding faith and love for our Constitution. David will be a tireless defender of both our Texas and United States Constitutions. He will be vigilant in writing and speaking out against the current Supreme Court’s trend towards marginalizing juries and the right to trial by juries guaranteed by our Texas State Constitution restoring to the court a return to the Checks and Balances intended by our forefathers. David’s respect in the legal community can be seen in the fact that David got 48% of the vote to his opponents 52% in a statewide State Bar of Texas judicial poll. He is an AV-Rated Attorney, Martindale-Hubbell peer rating system, highest rating for legal ability and ethics, has been listed in Best Lawyers in America, Woodward & White, by peer review, Labor & Employment Law, since 1986, is a Member, College of the State Bar of Texas, and was listed in Texas Monthly’s “Super Lawyers 2003”.

Born in 1950 in Kilgore, Texas David Van Os gets his fighting spirit from his grandfather, a World War I Veteran and his father a Veteran of World War II. Throughout the state David Van Os is raising the cry against a Republican “good ole boy system” of justice in Texas. …

On behalf of our membership the Texas Democratic Veterans Executive Committee is proud to announce that we hereby endorse David Van Os for Texas Supreme Court Place 9. In this endorsement we are proud to join with: Texas AFL-CIO, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, State Association of Electrical Workers, United Auto Workers, American Federation of Government Employees, Texas Carpenters & Millwrights Regional Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, Texas Working Families Political Action Committee, Rio Grande Valley Teachers Association, Austin Black Lawyers Association, Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, and Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio.

Comments

To be endorsed by proud Texas veterans at a time when our Constitutional liberties are at stake is a tremendous honor. Veterans of our country’s service are among the most honorable individuals in our society. They swore undying oaths to defend our country from all enemies foreign and domestic. They struggled, sacrificed, and bled on behalf of their fellow citizens. This endorsement places upon me the responsibility to conduct the people’s business in accordance with the high expectations of our country’s warriors for defense and preservation of the Constitution, the freedom, the democracy, and the liberties that they offered their lives to protect. It is a weighty responsibility that I do hereby humbly accept.

David Van Os

Van Os is running against the incumbent Jusdge Scott Brister who was appointed by Gov. Perry last Nov. to the court.

Justice, Supreme Court, Place 9
Brister, Scott (I)	Van Os, David

Justice Scott A. Brister

Justice Brister was appointed November 21 by Gov. Rick Perry to replace Justice Craig T. Enoch, who retired October 1. Justice Brister had been chief justice of the 14th District Court of Appeals in Houston since 2001.

A native of Waco, Justice Brister is a summa cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. After law school he was a briefing attorney for Chief Justice Joe Greenhill at the Texas Supreme Court in 1980-1981, then practiced law with Andrews & Kurth in Houston. In 1989, Gov. Bill Clements appointed him judge of the 234th District Court in Harris County, to which he was elected in 1990 and re-elected in 1994 and 1998. He was civil administrative judge for the Harris County district courts in 1998-1999.

In November 2000 Justice Brister was elected to the First District Court of Appeals in Houston and served until Gov. Perry appointed him chief justice of the 14th Court of Appeals in 2001. He won election to that position in November 2002.

Justice Brister twice was specially appointed to the Texas Supreme Court as an interim justice, in 2000, by Gov. George W. Bush, and in 2001, by Gov. Perry.

He is board-certified in civil trial law and personal injury trial law. He previously served on the five-member Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, the Supreme Court Advisory Committee and the Supreme Court Jury Task Force.

He is a fellow of the Houston and state bar foundations and a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas. He is a co-author of “Texas Pretrial Practice” and has written law review articles in the Baylor Law Review and St. Mary’s Law Journal.

Justice Brister and his wife, Julia Upton Brister, have four daughters, Elizabeth, Susannah, Sarah and Mattie. They are members of the Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball.

His term ends at the end of 2004.

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