This is very important. It is one of the most important topics I will ever have covered in a blog. I am writing to let all of my readers know that the largest power grab in my lifetime in the state of Texas is about to land in your lap. It is an assault facing our Texas democracy. If the assault is successful, and your children ask you how it is that we watched the ramparts of our democracy and justice system be destroyed, you will be able to tell them. Senator Robert Duncan (R) of Lubbock, Texas is trying hard to destroy 150 years of an independent court system accountable directly to the People. Here is what is going on.
Senator Robert Duncan is the state senator from Lubbock, Texas. For the past three sessions he has worked very hard to take away the right of the People of Texas to vote for their judges. He wants to take that right away from the People and vest it in the the governor. The Governor will then appoint a “committee” made up of his friends (biggest donors) who will then select the judges who will sit in your courts and determine your fates. These judges will owe their positions not to you, but to the Governor and his friends. The instruments of this power handover are S.B. 782 and S.B. 992, both authored by Sen. Robert Duncan.
S.B. 782 is called “Appointment and Retention of Justices and Judges.” In short, the bill stands for the proposition that there will no longer be judicial races between competing candidates. Instead of running and being voted in by the People, the Governor will select and appoint the judges. At the end of the judge's term, the judge will go on the ballot and the voters will ONLY be able to vote to “retain” or "not retain" the judge. If the voters choose to not retain the judge, the judge is released and the position is again filled by the Governor.
The law now provides that if there is a vacancy in a district court between elections, the governor appoints the judge. That judge then has to run, against others if others throw in their hats, to keep his seat at the next election. In the case of a vacancy at the county court level between elections, commissioner’s court makes the appointment and again, the judge must run, against others if others join the race, to keep his seat at the next election.
Senator Duncan has made sure that he is going to close the gap of having any local body, i.e. commissioner's court, control who gets a bench not only by eliminating elections but by converting county courts to district courts thereby making almost all courts subject to appointment by the Governor. Senator Duncan is striving to achieve this conversion through S.B. 922, which he also penned. At the very end of the bill (it is 57 pages long), the language addresses the conversion of county courts to district courts. Sec. 9 says that there shall be studies which will generate reports regarding “…converting to district court those statutory county courts...”
The Governor these days is Republican Rick Perry. This bill is obviously a ploy by certain members of the Republican Party to consolidate power by conferring on the Republican governor’s office the immense power to select judges.
I hope my Republican readers do not lose themselves in the stupidity and short sightedness of party politics on this one. Today it is the Republicans who are in power but tomorrow it could be the Democrats. The result is the same. You as the voter will have lost forever your right to control your judges, who are now accountable to you, and by extension, limit your access to your own courts.--You NEVER get lost rights back. Don not forfeit your children's rights by letting Duncan and his cronies take away your power.
Interestingly, I called Senator Duncan’s Lubbock office this morning to get his contact information. A simple matter one would think. A female answered the phone. I told her that I was writing a blog about the Senator and that I needed the address of his office. She told me that she would transfer me to the press secretary. I told her that I just needed the address and “if you could please give me that information.” She told me “no.” I said that I would be sure to include that in my blog. She then hung up on me. Click.
Stuart Leeds then called Senator Duncan’s office about thirty minutes later and got a female on the phone. He asked for her name and she refused to give it. He then asked to speak to her supervisor and she hung up on him. Click.
Senator Duncan wants to take away your right to choose your own judges. If his senate office secretary in the district hangs up on the public (who pays her salary), won’t even give her own name to a member of the public or the physical address of the senator’s office, can you imagine that any person Senator Duncan helps select to be judge will be any better than the secretary?
Here is Senator Robert Duncan’s number, 806-762-1122. And while his rude secretary, whose salary you are paying, is hanging up on the public, the senator is in Austin stripping you bare of your rights. Keep in mind that for 150 years, long before Senator Duncan and his ilk were ever on the scene, Texans made sure that the People chose almost every official in office by popular elections. Traditionally, the Governor of Texas has been one of the weakest governors in the country. Why? Because almost every official in the state is elected and therefore owes the governor nothing. Texans, however poor, bedraggled by the hardships of frontier life, hostile Indians, economic ups and downs, depressions, recessions, have always, up until the last 6 years, understood that there are three branches of government: The judiciary, the executive and the legislative. They have always understood, even back in the days of one room school houses, that those branches must be separate but equal and that the more separate they are, the more equal they are. Texans have always understood how priceless it is to be able to boot out a bad judge at the next round of elections and choose the next one. Texans have always understood the value of being able to have a jury trial for everything from complex litigation to a divorce suit where property division and child custody matters are at issue to a traffic ticket for speeding. It is a check and balances by the People those other less sage states such as California, Colorado, New Mexico, et. al., have taken away from their own populations.—You should hear the moans from lawyers and citizens who find themselves in court in those jurisdictions. I have had California lawyers tell me how wonderful it is that in Texas the PEOPLE choose their own judges. I have heard lawyers talk about how bad it is that they in their states can’t have a jury trial on many matters and that they are stuck with the decision of the judge who is often bad and beholden to others, how they can’t get rid of these bad judges because they have the appointment-retention system. And now we’re next, thanks to Senator Robert Duncan and his cronies. There will be more on this.
Senator Robert Duncan is the state senator from Lubbock, Texas. For the past three sessions he has worked very hard to take away the right of the People of Texas to vote for their judges. He wants to take that right away from the People and vest it in the the governor. The Governor will then appoint a “committee” made up of his friends (biggest donors) who will then select the judges who will sit in your courts and determine your fates. These judges will owe their positions not to you, but to the Governor and his friends. The instruments of this power handover are S.B. 782 and S.B. 992, both authored by Sen. Robert Duncan.
S.B. 782 is called “Appointment and Retention of Justices and Judges.” In short, the bill stands for the proposition that there will no longer be judicial races between competing candidates. Instead of running and being voted in by the People, the Governor will select and appoint the judges. At the end of the judge's term, the judge will go on the ballot and the voters will ONLY be able to vote to “retain” or "not retain" the judge. If the voters choose to not retain the judge, the judge is released and the position is again filled by the Governor.
The law now provides that if there is a vacancy in a district court between elections, the governor appoints the judge. That judge then has to run, against others if others throw in their hats, to keep his seat at the next election. In the case of a vacancy at the county court level between elections, commissioner’s court makes the appointment and again, the judge must run, against others if others join the race, to keep his seat at the next election.
Senator Duncan has made sure that he is going to close the gap of having any local body, i.e. commissioner's court, control who gets a bench not only by eliminating elections but by converting county courts to district courts thereby making almost all courts subject to appointment by the Governor. Senator Duncan is striving to achieve this conversion through S.B. 922, which he also penned. At the very end of the bill (it is 57 pages long), the language addresses the conversion of county courts to district courts. Sec. 9 says that there shall be studies which will generate reports regarding “…converting to district court those statutory county courts...”
The Governor these days is Republican Rick Perry. This bill is obviously a ploy by certain members of the Republican Party to consolidate power by conferring on the Republican governor’s office the immense power to select judges.
I hope my Republican readers do not lose themselves in the stupidity and short sightedness of party politics on this one. Today it is the Republicans who are in power but tomorrow it could be the Democrats. The result is the same. You as the voter will have lost forever your right to control your judges, who are now accountable to you, and by extension, limit your access to your own courts.--You NEVER get lost rights back. Don not forfeit your children's rights by letting Duncan and his cronies take away your power.
Interestingly, I called Senator Duncan’s Lubbock office this morning to get his contact information. A simple matter one would think. A female answered the phone. I told her that I was writing a blog about the Senator and that I needed the address of his office. She told me that she would transfer me to the press secretary. I told her that I just needed the address and “if you could please give me that information.” She told me “no.” I said that I would be sure to include that in my blog. She then hung up on me. Click.
Stuart Leeds then called Senator Duncan’s office about thirty minutes later and got a female on the phone. He asked for her name and she refused to give it. He then asked to speak to her supervisor and she hung up on him. Click.
Senator Duncan wants to take away your right to choose your own judges. If his senate office secretary in the district hangs up on the public (who pays her salary), won’t even give her own name to a member of the public or the physical address of the senator’s office, can you imagine that any person Senator Duncan helps select to be judge will be any better than the secretary?
Here is Senator Robert Duncan’s number, 806-762-1122. And while his rude secretary, whose salary you are paying, is hanging up on the public, the senator is in Austin stripping you bare of your rights. Keep in mind that for 150 years, long before Senator Duncan and his ilk were ever on the scene, Texans made sure that the People chose almost every official in office by popular elections. Traditionally, the Governor of Texas has been one of the weakest governors in the country. Why? Because almost every official in the state is elected and therefore owes the governor nothing. Texans, however poor, bedraggled by the hardships of frontier life, hostile Indians, economic ups and downs, depressions, recessions, have always, up until the last 6 years, understood that there are three branches of government: The judiciary, the executive and the legislative. They have always understood, even back in the days of one room school houses, that those branches must be separate but equal and that the more separate they are, the more equal they are. Texans have always understood how priceless it is to be able to boot out a bad judge at the next round of elections and choose the next one. Texans have always understood the value of being able to have a jury trial for everything from complex litigation to a divorce suit where property division and child custody matters are at issue to a traffic ticket for speeding. It is a check and balances by the People those other less sage states such as California, Colorado, New Mexico, et. al., have taken away from their own populations.—You should hear the moans from lawyers and citizens who find themselves in court in those jurisdictions. I have had California lawyers tell me how wonderful it is that in Texas the PEOPLE choose their own judges. I have heard lawyers talk about how bad it is that they in their states can’t have a jury trial on many matters and that they are stuck with the decision of the judge who is often bad and beholden to others, how they can’t get rid of these bad judges because they have the appointment-retention system. And now we’re next, thanks to Senator Robert Duncan and his cronies. There will be more on this.
on April 3, 2009, 8:34 am
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