Payola Justice: How Texas Supreme Court Justices Raise Money from Court Litigants

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In the 18-month periods corresponding to their most-recent elections, the seven Texas Supreme Court justices studied here (Justices Thomas Phillips, Raul Gonzalez, Nathan Hecht, John Cornyn, Priscilla Owen, James Baker and Greg Abbott) raised $9,166,350 in contributions of $100 or more. Of this $9.2 million, 40 percent ($3,690,363) was given by contributors who are closely linked to parties on the court docket for the period January 1, 1994 to October 30, 1997¹². In fact, 60 percent of the 530 opinions that the court issued in this period are tainted by contributor-docket links.

Hardly a game of "Seven Degrees of Separation," these recurring links between the justices' contributors and parties on the court's docket are straight-forward. They involve contributions to the justices by:

• Parties with cases before the court (namely plaintiffs and defendants);
• The lawyers and law firms representing these parties before the court; and
• Employees (usually executives) of businesses with cases before the court.

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