News Release

 
Austin, TX: Texans for Public Justice called on the Texas Supreme Court today to fully disclose all private subsidies that have been paid or promised to its court clerks by private interests that have stakes in the court’s proceedings.

The Texas Supreme Court’s latest ethics scandal broke this week when news reports revealed that private subsidies of court clerks by some of the state’s leading law firms appears to violate the “Bribery and Corrupt Influence” chapter of the Texas Penal Code. That law says that a judicial public servant commits a Class A misdemeanor if he or she accepts “any benefit from a person the public servant knows is interested in or likely to become interested in any matter before the public servant.” The person who provides the public servant with a perk also commits a Class A misdemeanor. Many legal jurisdictions prohibit clerks from pocketing such perks.

In a practice that appears to violate the letter of this law, leading corporate law firms with a steady stream of cases before the Texas Supreme Court often agree in advance to subsidize influential Texas Supreme Court clerks with payments of tens of thousands of dollars. The job of these clerks includes the “study of petitions for review, preparation for oral argument, and research and writing of opinions.”

Law firms that already have acknowledged subsidizing Texas Supreme Court clerks include Vinson & Elkins and Baker & Botts. From 1994 through 1999, Vinson & Elkins brought 154 separate legal issues before the Texas Supreme Court. The comparable number for Baker & Botts is 149.

“Texas Supreme Court justices and the state’s biggest law firms all appear to have been oblivious to this apparent conflict with the Bribery and Corrupt Influence portion of the penal code,” said Cristen Feldman. “If these pillars of the legal establishment do not follow the letter of the law, who will?”

To better assess the latest damage to the credibility of the Texas judicial system, Texans for Public Justice submitted a formal request today that calls on the Texas Supreme Court to disclose every benefit of which it is aware that its clerks have been promised or received since 1993, as well as any formal mechanisms the court uses to recuse clerks with potential conflicts.

“Here comes the sun,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “Once again we need a blast of sunshine to disinfect the influence of private money in Texas courts. This time it looks like it penetrated the inner sanctum of the justices’ chambers.”

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