Posted on 11/01/2011 2:50:43 PM PDT by altura
Over his 10 years in office, Rick Perry has picked more Texas Supreme Court justices than any other governor, and if he wins the White House, his choices could be a clue about what kind of justices he would nominate in Washington.
While Perry has been praised even by his critics for bringing diversity to the state’s highest civil court, critics say the governor leaned heavily on conservative, business-friendly ideology and gave too little consideration to judicial qualifications.
Texas high-court judges are elected, but the governor fills vacancies when sitting justices step down, so six of the nine current justices (all are Republicans) are Perry picks. Of those, four are racial minorities, two are women, and two have no prior experience as a judge. A Perry spokeswoman said the governor appoints the most qualified people based on their experience, background and legal philosophy.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I thought this was interesting. One may not like Perry’s choices, but we certainly have an idea of how he would choose. Not too bad, I would say.
One nice thing about having a record is, well, you have a record.
Be gone for a short time but will return in case anyone comments on this.
“A possible preview of the type of judges Perry would appoint.”
You might want to also discuss the CONSERVATIVE Supreme Court Justice that Perry engineered the defeat of...just to have him replaced with a moderate.
Absolutely horrible and vindictive...but then again, TOTALLY within character for Perry.
So let’s not get too giddy when it comes to Perry and judges. We’re paying the price here in Texas with Perry stacking the court with these clowns.
Purging of Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith
Perry has made numerous appointments to the Texas courts, the Railroad Commission, and other bodies and commissions during his tenure as governor. One of his first selections was the appointment of Xavier Rodriguez to the Texas Supreme Court. Rodriguez, who called himself a moderate, was quickly unseated in the 2002 Republican primary by conservative Steven Wayne Smith, the attorney in the Hopwood v. Texas suit in 1996, which successfully challenged affirmative action at the University of Texas Law School. Hopwood, however, was overturned in a 2003 decision stemming from the University of Michigan. Steven Smith was elected in the 2002 general election.
Perry objected to Smith’s tenure on the court and refused to meet with the new justice when he attempted to mend fences with the governor. Perry encouraged Judge Paul Green to challenge Smith in the 2004 Republican primary. Perry raised a lot of campaign cash for Green, who defeated Smith in the primary and was then elected without opposition in the 2004 general election. Smith attempted a comeback in the 2006 Republican primary by waging a shoestring challenge to Justice Don Willett, another Perry appointee who was also considered a strong conservative on the court. Smith polled 49.5 percent of the primary vote, but Perry’s man prevailed.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Rick_Perry#Purging_of_Supreme_Court_Justice_Steve_Smith
I'm quite OK with this...
To much conservatism might see a limit to eminent domain use.
Perry’s appointment of Medina DQ’s him for me, and I’m not referring to fires.
leaned heavily on conservative, business-friendly ideology and gave too little consideration to judicial qualifications.
A nice contrast to Romney. Good stuff.
“To much conservatism might see a limit to eminent domain use. “
Good point. Back then he was still proceeding with the biggest land grab in US history (the Trans-Texas Corridor, as he called it). If the Texas Supreme Court did get too conservative, they would have (rightly) killed it.
Well, that’s your opinion but I am all too familiar with your opinions on other posts and I tend to discount them.
Texas judges are elected and the judge you mention had two chances to win the seat and didn’t make it.
I like the Texas system and wish it was the U.S. system. Maybe 10 years instead of 6 for the U.S. Supreme court, but we’ve had too many die on the bench.
Perry can nominate to fill vacancies but ultimately the judges are elected.
Of course, various special interests don’t like the judges, but I like business friendly, conservative justices. It’s just part of believing in capitalism and the free enterprise system.
“Well, that’s your opinion but I am all too familiar with your opinions on other posts and I tend to discount them.”
It’s not my “opinion”, it’s what happened here in Texas.
If you want to keep posting this propaganda about Perry, I will respond.
(funny how we don’t see all this spam coming from Newt’s camp, but then again, he doesn’t have $15M to play with)
You know, it doesn’t cost anything to post here. Donations are of course accepted, but you don’t need to be popular and raise lots of money to be able to post good things you have done.
Maybe Gingrich doesn’t have people here who can find good things he has done to post. Not that you would care, as you have decided to torpedo him as well.
Strange bedfellows. Rodriguez called himself a moderate, although he didn’t particularly rule badly on anything. But in any case, Smith beat him.
In 2004, Smith ran against Green. I presume Green is the “moderate” you meant, but he’s not the one who called himself a moderate. Smith was supported in 2004 by Ron Paul and Kay Baily Hutchinson, while Green was supported by Rick Perry and John Cornyn. Cornyn isn’t solidly conservative, but was more conservative than Hutchinson. I’ll let others try to claim Ron Paul is more conservative than anybody.
Smith apparently lost because he put down Green’s law school, which didn’t sit well with some people who might otherwise support him.
Green, on the other hand, was a former Eagle Scout, which may have been something Perry liked, being an Eagle Scout as well.
Perry didn’t like Smith, but your article doesn’t explain why. In 2005 Smith lost to another conservative.
I can’t find any news references that would suggest Green is a bad justice. If you have something that would indicate why you find him to be a bad judge, would you please provide a link?
“You know, it doesn’t cost anything to post here. Donations are of course accepted, but you don’t need to be popular and raise lots of money to be able to post good things you have done.”
True, but it’s pretty obvious that Perry is spending a small fortune with on a number of zombie posters here. Even JR has had to zot a few of them.
People are always implying that other freepers get paid to post for candidates.
You’ve been around enough — don’t you think I deserve some money for the work I do? Because I don’t get paid diddly for anything around here. And I think I do a pretty good job defending candidates I’m not even supporting yet.
“People are always implying that other freepers get paid to post for candidates.”
Some are OBVIOUS...others are legit. You can usually tell the legit ones because they will admit their candidate has flaws. The obvious ones are the ones that toss out conservative values by the boatload to try to defend their candidate (i.e., such as defending the idea of shooting up little girls with Gardacil).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.