Part III: State of the Judiciary

On March 6th, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson presented his State of the Judiciary speech before the 83rd Texas Legislature. Due to the length of the speech, Disputing published the speech in three parts.

Here is Part III:

Juvenile Justice

Now, if antiquity is the root of our paper problem, modernity is the curse of our juvenile justice system. In modern times, we have elected to give our children tickets for the kind of misbehavior that, in the old days, landed you and me in the principal’s office. Class C misdemeanor tickets for “disruptive” school conduct. The child must appear in court to answer the charges. She has no right to counsel and no guarantee that her record will be sealed. Cash-strapped families forego representation, often with devastating consequences, like arrest warrants and criminal records. An estimated 300,000misdemeanor tickets are issued in our state’s schools each year. We are criminalizing our children for non-violent offenses. Students receiving these tickets are stigmatized. They often miss class or drop out of school altogether. We must keep our children in school, and out of our courts, to give them the opportunity to follow a path of success, not a path towards prison.

Senator Whitmire leads in this area, not just in Texas, but nationally. He and Senator West have joined forces this session to address some of these issues. They both understand that we must work together –legislators, judges, educators, law enforcement officers, and others–to address misbehavior in our schools, promote good behavior, maintain the safety of our students, increase graduation rates, decrease students’ exposure to the court system, refer students to proper community and mental-health resources when needed, and apply these policies consistently across schools and student bodies.

Guardianship

After “liberty and justice for all,” one of the most revered phrases I know is “honor thy father and mother.” I am incredibly fortunate to have both my mother and father here with me today, and two of my siblings, Leah and Lamont, who love and care for them in San Antonio. But for each member of the greatest generation that has the tender care of family, there is an elderly citizen for whom Texas provides few protections from abuse.

The population over age 65 in this state will increase by almost 50% by 2020 and will more than double by 2040. Many of those individuals will need help managing their affairs –some through the appointment of a guardian. But Texas currently has only 368 state-certified guardians who handle only 5,000 of the 40,000 pending guardianships. Families, friends, and attorneys serve as guardians in the remaining cases. Only ten of our 254 counties have probate courts with resources to adequately prevent abuse. An exploding elderly population will stress the guardianship system. We must begin to address these issues and prepare.

For this reason, I am today announcing the creation of a special committee of the Texas Judicial Council whose sole mission will be to honor our mothers and fathers. The committee will make recommendations to ensure their safety and financial security, and I hope you will all support the effort.

Conclusion

We must provide legal aid for the poor, modernize our system for the middle class, build a sane disciplinary regime for our children, protect our parents. We should do one more thing. Discard our broken system in which judges of enormous talent are removed from office not for ineptitude, but only because they happen to be a member of the wrong political party when partisan winds shift. All of these reforms are encompassed in the judiciary’s obligation to provide access to justice. That phrase is often thought of in terms of providing legal services to the poor. It is that, to be sure, but an accessible justice system requires that even broader segments of our society be able to utilize it. Viewed this way, our remedies must be more expansive as well. Just as no single defect created the barriers, there is no unitary solution. So we must marshal all of our forces.

On February 24, 1836, Texas forces were under siege from the Mexican army at the battle of the Alamo. William Barret Travis, the commander of the Texian soldiers, sent a desperate plea for help. Addressed to “the People of Texas & All Americans in the World,” he asked “in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.” He vowed never to surrender or retreat, promising “victory or death.” His fate was sealed March 6th, exactly 177 years ago.

We are at a crossroads177 years later. Addressing the challenges in our justice system requires a fundamental shift in thinking. Our courts are the final line of protection for individual rights. They provide access to justice, protect us from abuses of power by corporations or the government; they protect our most basic constitutional rights. But the courts must, themselves, reform. We need to change the way we do business to better meet the needs of citizens and employers across our state. That’s why we are investing in technology to save taxpayers money and to provide better customer service to those who come to us for justice.

My presentation today is not a State of the Judiciary. It is a call to arms. “[I]n the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character,” Commander Travis urged Texans to act with dispatch. Today, let’s marshal our forces to confront our challenges so that we can better serve the people. We may not win the entire battle today. But, as we Texans like to say, remember the Alamo!

The Chief Justice’s entire State of the Judiciary speech may be viewed at Texas Courts Online.