Supreme Court of Texas

Supreme Court of Texas
Seal of the Supreme Court
30°16′33″N97°44′28″W / 30.27583°N 97.74111°W / 30.27583; -97.74111
Established	February 19, 1846 [1]
Jurisdiction	Texas, United States
Location	Austin, Texas
Coordinates	30°16′33″N97°44′28″W / 30.27583°N 97.74111°W / 30.27583; -97.74111
Composition method	Partisan Election
Authorized by	Constitution of Texas
Appeals to	Supreme Court of the United States
Judge term length	6 years; renewable
Number of positions	9
Website	Official website
Chief Justice
Currently	Jimmy Blacklock
Since	January 7, 2025

The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort in criminal matters.

The Court has its seat at the Supreme Court Building on the State Capitol grounds in Austin, Texas. ^[2]

The Texas Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and eight justices. All nine positions are elected, with a term of office of six years and no term limit.

The Texas Supreme Court was established in 1846 to replace the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. It meets in downtown Austin, Texas in an office building near the Texas State Capitol.

Regulation of the practice of law in Texas courts

By statute, the Texas Supreme Court has administrative control over the State Bar of Texas, an agency of the judiciary. ^[3] The Texas Supreme Court has the sole authority to license attorneys in Texas. ^[4] It also appoints the members of the Board of Law Examiners ^[5] which, under instructions of the Supreme Court, administers the Texas bar exam. ^[6] The Court has the last word in attorney disciplinary proceedings brought by the Commission for Lawyer Discipline, a committee of the State Bar of Texas, but rarely exercises discretionary review in such cases. The Supreme Court accepts fewer than 100 cases per year to be decided on the merits. In addition to its adjudicatory and administrative functions, the Supreme Court promulgates, and occasionally revises, court rules of procedure, which include the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (TRCP), the Texas Rules of Evidence (TRE), and the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure (TRAP).

Unique procedural aspects

The Texas Supreme Court is the only state supreme court in the United States in which the manner in which it denies discretionary review can actually imply approval or disapproval of the merits of the lower court's decision and in turn may affect the geographic extent of the precedential effect of that decision. In March 1927, the Texas Legislature enacted a law directing the Texas Supreme Court to summarily refuse to hear applications for writs of error when it believed the Court of Appeals opinion correctly stated the law. ^[7] Thus, since June 1927, over 4,100 decisions of the Texas Courts of Appeals have become valid binding precedent of the Texas Supreme Court itself because the high court refused applications for writ of error rather than denying them and thereby signaled that it approved of their holdings as the law of the state. ^[7]

While Texas's unique practice saved the state supreme court from having to hear relatively minor cases just to create uniform statewide precedents on those issues, it also makes for lengthy citations to the opinions of the Courts of Appeals, since the subsequent writ history of the case must always be noted (e.g., no writ, writ refused, writ denied, etc.) in order for the reader to determine at a glance whether the cited opinion is binding precedent only in the district of the Court of Appeals in which it was decided, or binding precedent for the entire state. ^[7] Citations to cases from the Houston-based Courts of Appeals are also longer than others because they require identification of the appellate district number -- [1st Dist.] or [14th Dist.] -- in addition to the name of the city.

Structure of the court and membership

The Texas Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and eight justices. All positions are elective. While the chief has special administrative responsibilities, each member has one vote and may issue a dissenting or concurring opinion. Granted cases are assigned to justices' chambers for opinion authorship by draw. Grants require four votes. Judgments are rendered by majority vote. Per curiam opinions may be issued if at least six justices agree. Petitions for review are automatically denied after 30 days unless at least one justice pulls them off the metaphorical conveyor belt.

To serve on the court, a candidate must be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of Texas, licensed to practice law in Texas, and must have practiced law (or have been a lawyer and a judge of a court of record together) for at least ten years. ^[8] The Clerk of the Court, currently Blake A. Hawthorne, is appointed by the justices and serves a four-year term, which is renewable. ^[9]

All members of the Texas Supreme Court typically belong to the same party because all are elected in statewide races, rather than by the electorates of smaller appellate districts, as the justices on the intermediate appellate courts are. Although there are fourteen such courts, the state is geographically divided into thirteen. Two appellate courts (the 1st and the 14th, sitting in Houston) serve coextensive districts covering ten counties, including Harris County. Recent proposals to reorganize the Texas appellate court system by consolidating districts, and creating a specialty court of appeals for government-entity cases, failed in the Texas legislature's 2021 regular session. ^{[10] [11]}

Judicial selection: appointments and elections

Texas Supreme Court Building

All members of the court are elected to six-year terms in statewide partisan elections. Because their terms are staggered, only some of the justices are up for re-election in any one election cycle. When a vacancy arises, the Governor of Texas appoints a replacement, subject to Senate confirmation, to serve out the unexpired term until December 31 after the next general election. The initial term of tenure is therefore often less than six years. Most of the current justices were originally appointed either by former Governor Rick Perry or by the current Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who is himself a former member of the court.

Like the judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, all members of the Texas Supreme Court are currently Republicans.

The most recent appointees are James P. Sullivan, Evan Young, Rebeca Huddle, Jane Bland, Jimmy Blacklock, and Brett Busby.

Prior public service of incumbents

Brett Busby and Jane Bland are former Court of Appeals justices from Houston, whose re-election bids failed in November 2018 when Democrats won all of the judicial races in that election. Blacklock previously served Governor Greg Abbott as general counsel. Huddle was a justice on the First Court of Appeals in Houston. ^[12]

Blacklock replaced Don Willett, who now sits on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that hears appeals from federal district courts in Texas. Busby succeeds Phil Johnson, who retired in 2018, and was sworn in on  March 20, 2019. ^[13] Jane Bland was appointed in September 2019 to fill the vacancy left by Jeff Brown, who resigned from the court to accept appointment to a U.S. district court bench. ^[14] Rebeca Huddle was appointed in October 2020 to replace Paul Green, who retired from the Court on August 31, 2020. ^{[12] [15] [16]} Eva Guzman, the second-most senior member of the Court at the time, resigned on June 11, 2021. She is currently challenging Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP primary for that office. ^[17] The vacancy created by Guzman's resignation was filled by Evan Young's appointment on November 10, 2021.

Position designations and seniority

The position of Chief Justice is designated Place 1 and is held by Jimmy Blacklock. The other eight position numbers have no special significance except for identification purposes on the ballot. Informally, justices are ranked by seniority, and their profiles appear on the Court's website in that order. ^[18] Unlike their counterparts on the U.S. Supreme Court, the official title of incumbents holding Place 2 through Place 9 is justice, rather than associate justice. ^[19] Their counterparts on the Court of Criminal Appeals, however, use the title Judge.

Women on the court

Hortense Sparks Ward, who became the first woman to pass the Texas Bar Exam in 1910, was appointed Special Chief Justice of an all-female Texas Supreme Court 15 years later. All of the court's male justices recused themselves from Johnson v. Darr, a 1924 case involving the Woodmen of the World, and, since nearly every member of the Texas Bar was a member of that fraternal organization, paying personal insurance premiums that varied with the claims decided against it, no male judges or attorneys could be found to hear the case. ^[20] After ten months of searching for suitable male replacements to decide the case, Governor Pat Neff decided on January 1, 1925, to appoint a special court composed of three women. This court, consisting of Ward, Hattie Leah Henenberg, and Ruth Virginia Brazzil, met for five months and ultimately ruled in favor of Woodmen of the World. ^[21]

On July 25, 1982, Ruby Kless Sondock became the court's first regular female justice, when she was appointed to replace Justice James G. Denton who had died of a heart attack. Sondock served the remainder of Denton's term, which ended on December 31, 1982, but did not seek election to the Supreme Court in her own right. ^[22] Rose Spector became the first woman elected to the court in 1992 and served until 1998 when she was defeated by Harriet O'Neill. ^[23]

Following the recent departure of Eva Guzman, the Texas Supreme Court currently has three women members. ^[18] One of them served as a family court judge in Fort Worth (Lehrmann), the second (Bland) was a district judge in the civil trial division of the Harris County district courts before she was appointed to the intermediate court of appeals, and the third (Huddle) previously served on an intermediate court of appeals in Houston. ^[12] As of September 2019, women jurists filled almost half of the 80 intermediate appellate positions. ^[24] Some of the fourteen intermediate courts of appeals have female majorities. The Fourth Court of Appeals, based in San Antonio, is composed entirely of women. ^[25]

Justice Eva Guzman resigned from Place 9 effective Friday, June 11, 2021 at 3 PM after delivering a final dissenting opinion in the morning. ^{[26] [27]}

Current justices

Place	Justice [28]	Born	Joined	Term ends	Mandatory retirement [a]	Party affiliation	Appointed by	Law school
1	Jimmy Blacklock , Chief Justice	(1980-08-28) August 28, 1980 (age 44)	January 2, 2018 [b]	2026	2055	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Yale
3	Debra Lehrmann	(1956-11-16) November 16, 1956 (age 68)	June 21, 2010	2028	2032	Republican	Rick Perry (R)	Texas
7	Jeffrey S. Boyd	(1961-12-02) December 2, 1961 (age 63)	December 3, 2012	2026	2036	Republican	Rick Perry (R)	Pepperdine
4	John P. Devine	(1958-10-03) October 3, 1958 (age 66)	January 1, 2013	2030	2034	Republican	— [c]	South Texas
8	J. Brett Busby	(1973-04-12) April 12, 1973 (age 51)	February 21, 2019	2026	2048	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Columbia
6	Jane Bland	(1965-06-01) June 1, 1965 (age 59)	September 4, 2019	2030	2040	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Texas
5	Rebeca Huddle	(1973-07-07) July 7, 1973 (age 51)	October 30, 2020	2028	2048	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Texas
9	Evan Young	(1976-09-14) September 14, 1976 (age 48)	November 10, 2021	2028	2052	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Yale
2	James P. Sullivan	(1981-05-04) May 4, 1981 (age 43)	January 7, 2025	2026	2056	Republican	Greg Abbott (R)	Harvard

1. Under Article 5 of the Texas Constitution, justices who reach the age of 75 during the first four years of their 6-year term, must retire by December 31 of the fourth year of their term. If justices reach the age of 75 during the fifth or sixth year of their term, they will be able to serve out the remainder of their term. ^[29]
2. Took office as Chief Justice on January 7, 2025.
3. Took office after being elected in a partisan election.

History of membership of the court

Main article: List of justices of the Texas Supreme Court

Succession of seats

Chief Justice (Place 1) Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876 G. Moore Democratic 1878–1881 Gould Democratic 1881–1882 Willie Democratic 1882–1888 Stayton Democratic 1888–1894 Gaines Democratic 1894–1911 Brown Democratic 1911–1915 N. Phillips Democratic 1915–1921 Cureton Democratic 1921–1940 W.F. Moore Democratic 1940–1941 Alexander Democratic 1941–1948 Hickman Democratic 1948–1961 Calvert Democratic 1961–1972 Greenhill Democratic 1972–1982 Pope Democratic 1982–1985 Hill Democratic 1985–1988 Phillips Republican 1988–2004 Jefferson Republican 2004–2013 Hecht Republican 2013–2024 Blacklock Republican 2025–present

Place 2 Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876 Gould Democratic 1876–1881 Stayton Democratic 1881–1888 Walker Democratic 1888–1889 Henry Democratic 1889–1893 Brown Democratic 1893–1911 Ramsey Democratic 1911–1912 N. Phillips Democratic 1912–1915 Yantis Democratic 1915–1918 Greenwood Democratic 1918–1934 Sharp Democratic 1934–1952 Culver Democratic 1953–1965 Pope Democratic 1964–1982 T. Robertson Democratic 1982–1988 Doggett Democratic 1989–1994 Owen Republican 1995–2005 Willett Republican 2005–2018 Blacklock Republican 2018–2025 Sullivan Republican 2025–present

Place 3 Established by the Texas Constitution of 1876 G. Moore Democratic 1876–1878 Bonner Democratic 1878–1882 West Democratic 1882–1885 S. Robertson Democratic 1885–1886 Gaines Democratic 1886–1894 Denman Democratic 1894–1899 Williams Democratic 1899–1911 Bibrell Democratic 1911–1913 Hawkins Democratic 1913–1921 Pierson Democratic 1921–1935 Critz Democratic 1935–1945 Simpson Democratic 1945–1949 Harvey Democratic 1949–1950 Calvert Democratic 1950–1961 Steakley Democratic 1961–1980 Wallace Democratic 1981–1988 Cook Republican 1988–1992 Spector Democratic 1993–1998 O'Neill Republican 1999–2010 Lehrmann Republican 2010–present

Place 4 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 Sadler Democratic 1918–1920 Powell Democratic 1920–1927 Leddy Democratic 1927–1933 Smedley Democratic 1933–1954 Walker Democratic 1954–1975 Doughty Democratic 1975–1976 Yarbrough Democratic 1976–1977 Barrow Democratic 1977–1984 Gonzalez Democratic 1984–1998 Gonzales Republican 1999–2000 Jefferson Republican 2001–2004 Medina Republican 2004–2012 Devine Republican 2013–present

Place 5 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 Montgomery Democratic 1918–1919 Kittrell Democratic 1919–1921 Hamilton Democratic 1921 Short Democratic 1925–1934 Taylor Democratic 1935–1950 Wilson Democratic 1950–1956 McCall Democratic 1956 Norvell Democratic 1957–1968 Reavley Democratic 1968–1977 Chadick Democratic 1977–1978 Campbell Democratic 1978–1988 Culver Republican 1988 Hightower Democratic 1988–1996 Abbott Republican 1996–2001 Rodriguez Republican 2001–2002 Smith Republican 2002–2004 Green Republican 2005–2020 Huddle Republican 2020–present

Place 6 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 Taylor Democratic 1919–1921 Randolph Democratic 1921–1923 Bishop Democratic 1923–1927 Critz Democratic 1927–1935 Hickman Democratic 1935–1948 Garwood Democratic 1948–1958 Hamilton Democratic 1959–1970 Denton Democratic 1971–1982 Sondock Democratic 1982 Kilgarlin Democratic 1983–1988 Hecht Republican 1989–2013 Brown Republican 2013–2019 Bland Republican 2019–present

Place 7 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section B Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 McClendon Democratic 1918–1923 Stayton Democratic 1923–1925 Speer Democratic 1925–1929 Ryan Democratic 1929–1937 Martin Democratic 1937–1939 Slatton Democratic 1939–1947 Hart Democratic 1947–1950 Smith Democratic 1950–1970 Daniel Democratic 1971–1978 Spears Democratic 1979–1990 Cornyn Republican 1991–1997 Hankinson Republican 1997–2002 Wainwright Republican 2002–2012 Boyd Republican 2012–present

Place 8 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 Sonfield Democratic 1918–1921 Gallagher Democratic 1921–1923 Blanks Democratic 1923–1924 Chapman Democratic 1924–1925 Nickels Democratic 1925–1929 Sharp Democratic 1929–1934 German Democratic 1935–1941 Brewster Democratic 1941–1957 Greenhill Democratic 1957–1972 H. Phillips Democratic 1972 S. Johnson Democratic 1973–1979 Garwood Republican 1978–1980 Ray Democratic 1980–1990 Gammage Democratic 1990–1995 Baker Republican 1995–2002 Schneider Republican 2002–2004 P. Johnson Republican 2004–2018 Busby Republican 2019–present

Place 9 Established in 1918 as Commissioner, Section A Made a Supreme Court judgeship in 1945 Strong Democratic 1918–1920 Spencer Democratic 1920–1923 German Democratic 1923–1925 Harvey Democratic 1925–1943 Folley Democratic 1943–1949 Griffin Democratic 1949–1968 McGee Democratic 1969–1986 Mauzy Democratic 1987–1992 Enoch Republican 1993–2003 Brister Republican 2003–2009 Guzman Republican 2009–2021 Young Republican 2021–present

Supreme Court committees

Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT)

Created in 1997 JCIT was established to set standards and guidelines for the systematic implementation and integration of information technology into the trial and appellate courts in Texas.

JCIT approaches this mission by providing a forum for state-local, inter-branch, and public-private collaboration, and development of policy recommendations for the Supreme Court of Texas. Court technology, and the information it carries, are sprawling topics, and Texas is a diverse state with decentralized funding and decision-making for trial court technology. JCIT provides a forum for discussion of court technology and information projects. With this forum, JCIT reaches out to external partners such as the Conference of Urban Counties, the County Information Resource Agency, Texas.gov, and TIJIS (Texas Integrated Justice Information Systems), and advises or is consulted by the Office of Court Administration on a variety of projects.

Three themes consistently recur in the JCIT conversation: expansion and governance of electronic filing; the evolution and proliferation of court case management systems; and the evolution and governance of technology standards for reporting and sharing information across systems in civil, family, juvenile, and criminal justice.

The Founding Chair of JCIT from 1997 to 2009 was Peter S. Vogel, a partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP in Dallas, and since 2009 the JCIT Chair has been Justice Rebecca Simmons.

References

1. "Texas Supreme Court Advisory". Archived from the original on January 25, 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
2. "Supreme Court Building on Map of Texas Capitol Complex" (PDF). Texas Judiciary Website. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
3. Tex. Gov't Code section 81.011.
4. Tex. Gov't Code sections 81.061 and 82.021
5. Tex. Gov't Code section 82.001
6. Tex. Gov't Code section 82.004.
7. Steiner, Mark E. (February 1999). "Not Fade Away: The Continuing Relevance of 'Writ Refused' Opinions". The Appellate Advocate. 12: 3–6. Available via HeinOnline.
8. Tex. Const., Art. 5, Sec. 2.
9. "TJB | SC | About the Court | Clerk's Office". www.txcourts.gov. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
10. Oxner, Reese (April 14, 2021). "The Texas Senate has approved a new statewide appeals court. Critics contend it's another attempt to limit Democrats' power". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
11. Perez, Elida S. (April 9, 2021). "Senator scraps controversial bill to reduce Texas appellate courts". El Paso Matters. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
12. "Governor Abbott Appoints Rebeca Huddle To The Texas Supreme Court". gov.texas.gov. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
13. Platoff, Emma (March 20, 2019). "Texas Senate confirms Brett Busby for Supreme Court post". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
14. Platoff, Emma (August 26, 2019). "Gov. Greg Abbott selects former appeals court judge Jane Bland for Texas Supreme Court". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on October 11, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
15. Oxner, Reese (July 22, 2020). "Timing of Supreme Court justice's retirement allows Gov. Greg. Abbott, not voters, to pick his two-year replacement". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
16. Platoff, Emma (October 15, 2020). "Gov. Greg Abbott picks Rebeca Huddle for Texas Supreme Court vacancy". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
17. Svitek, Patrick (June 14, 2021). "Eva Guzman, former Texas Supreme Court justice, joins GOP primary challenge against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
18. "TJB | SC | About the Court | Justices". www.txcourts.gov. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
19. "Texas Constitution" (PDF).
20. Mauldin Cottrell, Debbie (June 9, 2010). "All-Woman Supreme Court". www.tshaonline.org. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
21. "Hortense Sparks Ward (1875–1944)". Justices of Texas 1836–1986. Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin. October 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 7, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
22. "Ruby Kless Sondock (born 1926)". Justices of Texas 1836–1986. Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin. October 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 7, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
23. Cruse, Don (January 8, 2008). "An Unusual History of Women Serving on the Texas Supreme Court". The Supreme Court of Texas Blog. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
24. "Profile of Appellate and Trial Judges" (PDF). Texas Office of Court Administration. September 1, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 6, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
25. "About the Court: Justices". Fourth Court of Appeals. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
26. Pollock, Cassandra (June 7, 2021). "Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman resigns". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
27. "Orders pronounced June 11, 2021". Supreme Court of Texas. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
28. "Supreme Court Justices". Texas Judicial Branch.
29. Cardona, Megan (November 10, 2023). "Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, others set to step down early after Prop 13's rejection". KERA News.

Further reading

• Haley, James L. The Texas Supreme Court: A Narrative History, 1836–1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013). xxviii, 322 pp.

External links

• Texas portal
• Law portal

• Official Website for the Texas Supreme Court

Texas Supreme Court History: Links to Resources ^[1]

• The Texas Reports, the decisions of the Texas Supreme Court from 1846 to 1885, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• "Judiciary" (by Paul Womack) from The Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association)
• Texas Supreme Court Historical Society

1. "TJB - SC - About the Court - Court History". www.txcourts.gov. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2018.