Talking Points on Texas Justice Priscilla Owen
- Out of mainstream: The judicial opinions of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen are out of the mainstream—even by Texas’ standards. Owen’s opinions are outside the mainstream of Texas jurisprudence in the areas of discrimination and employee rights, reproductive rights, sexual harassment, public information rights, environmental protection and consumer and citizen rights.
- Extremist dissent: After the rest of the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court moved closer to the center in 1998 (following Governor Bush’s appointment of relatively moderate justices), Justices Owen and Nathan Hecht became an isolated, far-right bloc of dissent on an already conservative, anti-consumer court. Since 1998, Owen has authored or joined 66 dissents, a record surpassed only by Hecht (86 dissents). Owen’s dissents came nearly twice as often as the average of all the court’s remaining justices. Since joining the Court, Owen has joined or authored 86 dissents.
- Judicial activism: The Texas court-watching publication Juris Publici calls Owen a “conservative judicial activist.” Owen’s activist opinions betray a judicial philosophy that is at odds with President Bush’s stated goal of nominating judges who will interpret rather than write the law. The court’s majority has often felt compelled to criticize the activist dissents that Owen has authored or joined. Owen’s activist opinions have attempted to curtail the Public Information Act, to create barriers for injured consumers trying to recover damages and to erode hardship exemptions in a parental-notification law for minors seeking abortions. Owen has authored 16 significant activist opinions and joined 15 more of them.
- Undermining juries: Owen’s opinions repeatedly substitute her authority for that of civil juries. In justifying the wiping out of jury verdicts, she has relied on such ever-expanding rationalizations as: “junk science,” “unqualified experts,” “insufficient evidence,” “no cause” and “no duty.” She has authored nine significant anti-jury opinions and joined 18 others.
- Anti-consumer opinions: A report by Austin-based Court Watch found that, during Owen’s first four years on the Texas Supreme Court, individuals won 36 percent of their cases compared to win rates of 66 percent for businesses, 70 percent for insurers and 86 percent for medical interests. Owen has authored 19 significant anti-consumer opinions and joined 17 others.
- Contributor conflicts: More than $500,000 (37 percent) of the $1.4 million that Owen raised for her two Supreme Court campaigns came from lawyers and litigants who had cases in her courtroom. Owen ranks No. 2 on the court in the share of campaign money that she took from these docket donors. Owen’s 11 biggest litigant-donors (including Enron Corp., Farmers Insurance and Dow Chemical) appeared in her courtroom 26 times. While these big docket donors prevailed an enviable 77 percent of the time before the court as a whole, Owen was even kinder—favoring them 85 percent of the time. Owen authored eight significant contributor-conflict opinions and joined 17 others.
- Tort agenda: Much of the money that financed Owen’s Supreme Court campaigns has been traced to Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Texas Civil Justice League, groups lobbying to limit the civil liability of Texas businesses. A study of the $1 million that Owen raised in 1994, for example, found that 17 percent of this funding came from members or PACs of these two tort lobby groups.
Texans For Public Justice 609 West 18th St., Suite E, Austin, Texas 78701
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