I have mixed feelings about the story in the Dallas Morning News today reporting that the backlog of cases pending before the Texas Supreme Court has reached a record level. On the one hand, if the justices would quit illegally using their campaign funds for frequent trips home, maybe they could clear more cases. On the other hand, since this Court finds in favor of big corporations about 70% of the time, maybe we’re better off with the Court just leaving all the cases piled up in the corner. Here are excerpts from the Dallas Morning News article:
The Texas Supreme Court left a record number of cases pending at the end of the 2007 fiscal year, even as it agreed to hear more cases.
The delay is drawing fire from at least one candidate for the Supreme Court.
“Texans don’t need to be told they need to take a number and get in line and wait,” said Jim Jordan, a Democrat challenging Republican Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson. “These kinds of delays create a distrust in the legal system.”
Jordan, a Dallas trial judge, said parties that reach the Supreme Court have already spent considerable time and money in the legal process.
But Justice Paul Green, who wrote the fewest opinions during the fiscal year, defended the time he and others spend outside the office, speaking to groups and doing other appearances outside the court.
