New Texas Supreme Court chief justice calls for judicial raises, changes to bail laws

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In his first address to the Texas Legislature, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock struck a more ideological tone than his predecessor, proudly embracing constitutional originalism, a judicial philosophy often associated with conservatives.

“Our Constitution means the same thing yesterday, today and tomorrow, until the people of Texas decide to change it,” he said. “This is called constitutional originalism, and under this Supreme Court, it is the law in Texas.”

He contrasted this with the idea, more typically associated with the left, that the Constitution is a living document that should evolve with changing times.

“In Texas, under this Supreme Court, the living Constitution is dead,” Blacklock said, to cheers and applause from the joint session of state representatives and senators who gathered for the biannual State of the Judiciary speech.

Before he was appointed to the bench in 2017, Blacklock worked under Gov. Greg Abbott, first at the attorney general’s office and then as his general counsel, helping lead some of Texas’ biggest legal fights on abortion, voting access, gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act.

Abbott appointed him chief justice in January to replace Nathan Hecht, who stepped down due to the mandatory judicial retirement age. Hecht was the longest serving Supreme Court justice in Texas history, spending 36 years on the high court, 10 of them as chief justice, and 43 years as a judge.

“He first became a judge just a few days after my first birthday in 1981,” Blacklock noted in his speech. “All of his fellow Texans, young and old, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat, owe Nathan Hecht a great debt of gratitude for his tireless and principled work to promote the rule of law and to make justice a greater reality for every Texan.”

The chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court addresses the Legislature biannually on behalf of the judicial branch. Blacklock reported that Texas’ judiciary was in good shape, but he nonetheless was “going to make a few suggestions, perhaps a few complaints” to legislators about how things could be improved.

He echoed years of calls, from Hecht and others, to increase judicial salaries, saying the base pay for district judges had not been raised since 2013, putting Texas 48th out of 50 states for judicial salaries. The Judicial Compensation Commission has recommended a 30% pay increase across the board for judges, which Blacklock said was necessary to attract and retain talented lawyers to the profession.

“If these were just any government employees, those of you who know me know that I would be more likely to recommend a Department of Government Efficiency than a pay raise,” he said, referring to the controversial federal cost-cutting effort run by tech billionaire Elon Musk. “But we’re not talking about any bureaucrats. We’re talking about the constitutional officers of a co-equal branch of government.”

Blacklock said these raises were necessary while also calling out a “few judges who may not be working as hard as the job demands.” He said he had “no patience” for these alleged slackers, and would use his authority as chief justice to identify “problem judges,” using clearance rates and other metrics to figure out where there were weak spots and pushing to have those judges removed from the bench if necessary.

The framers of the Constitution, he said, “gave us tools to fix these problems in the very rare cases where they arise, and if we forget about these tools, or we don’t use them because we think it would be too difficult, or it might make us look bad, then we’re not allowing our Constitution to operate the way it was designed.”

Blacklock threw his support behind the legislative effort to tighten restrictions on when a defendant can be let out on bail, which Abbott has designated an emergency item. He said this was necessary to support law enforcement, as there were people out there who would find ways to do evil, no matter how many laws the Legislature passed to stop them.

“They aren’t stopped by laws written on paper or by judges and voters,” he said. “The only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun who means to do evil is a good man with a gun who means to do justice.”

For many years, Hecht used this speech to call on more funding for legal aid programs that helped low-income Texans access the civil legal system. Blacklock said that remained a focus for the “court as a whole”, but his energy would go toward systemic reforms that make legal services more affordable for everyone. He said he would be open to proposals, which Hecht and others have backed, to allow non-lawyers to provide some basic legal services.

Blacklock concluded his speech by calling for changes to the child welfare system to allow families to stay together more easily, saying using the “coercive power of the state … to destroy a family should never be our first instinct.”

“It’s tempting when we see these children in these desperate circumstances to want them removed quickly from their failed parents for their protection,” he said. “But we have to remember this, just as surely as God made those precious children, God made that family.”

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