[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ] TEXAS SUPREME COURT JUSTICE PRISCILLA OWEN I. Owen’s Judicial Career E. Conclusion

The practice of Texas Supreme Court justices ruling on behalf of the interests who fund their campaigns is a source of national embarrassment for Texas. This scandal was investigated by CBS’ 60 Minutes in 1987 and again in 1998. The Texas Supreme Court’s own 1999 poll found that 83 percent of Texans, 79 percent of Texas lawyers and even 48 percent of Texas judges say that campaign contributions significantly influence judicial decisions.²³  Commenting on this poll on PBS’ Frontline in 2000, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “The law commands allegiance only if it commands respect. It commands respect only if the public thinks judges are neutral.”

Although campaign-contribution conflicts would raise ethical questions about the nomination of any Texas Supreme Court justice for the federal bench, President George W. Bush exercised particularly bad judgment in nominating Owen. Not only is her record particularly troubling on campaign contribution and related issues, but Owen is also on the far right wing of this conservative court. When the rest of the court moved toward the center in 1998 (ironically due partly to the influence of then-Governor Bush’s appointees), Justices Owen and Hecht became isolated extremists who often were reduced to writing far-right dissents that promote the interests of their campaign donors at the expense of consumers and juries. Legal scholars can and should debate which of these opinions Owen decided rightly or wrongly. Taken together, however, they reflect the work of a jurist who is far outside the mainstream--even by Texas standards.