Published: June 26, 2008 09:50 pm      

Texas Supreme Court hopefuls discuss ideas

Two democratic candidates for the Texas Supreme Court attended a small meet and greet at the Chamber of Commerce Thursday to discuss their hopes for Texas and their campaigns.

Sam Houston, an attorney running for Supreme Court Place 7, and 160th District Court Judge Jim Jordan, who is running for Supreme Court Chief Justice position, talked with a group of local politicians and Sam Houston State University professors specifically about changing the direction they feel is currently being taken by the state Supreme Court.

Houston, a partner at Cruse, Scott, Henderson & Allen in Houston, has over 20 years experience practicing law, and he said he wants to use his experience to make fair decisions as a member of the Texas Supreme Court.

“Both myself and other attorneys in the state feel that the Supreme Court has become skewed to the side, and it needs to come back to the center,” Houston said. “I think the court needs a new perspective, for both parties, and for my part I want to infuse a different philosophy and perspective within the court.”

One of Houston’s main concerns with the current state Supreme Court body, which Jordan said he also agreed with, was the need to work to decrease the amount of backlog — a growing collection of undecided cases — seen in the court.

“This issue has been well-documented, and I’ve even heard of a woman dying before her case was decided by the court because of such a high volume of backlog,” Houston said. “The court just isn’t deciding issues quickly enough, and while these people are waiting, they aren’t getting any justice. That needs to change.”

Jordan, a former 44th District Court Judge, also said he wanted to return a sense of balance to the Texas Supreme Court.

“I want to protect the peoples’ right to a trial by jury, which is guaranteed in both the U.S. constitution and the Texas constitution,” he said. “Also, I want people to know that if I were the Chief Justice, my robe would be black, not red or blue.”

Another hope Jordan has is to reorganize the way the court is organized in order to reduce backlog and any other confusion.

“I think we could organize the processes of the court if we look at how we schedule conferences and distribute case loads,” he said.