Judges

How the Unchecked Power of Judges Is Hurting Poor Texans

Can’t afford a lawyer? Don’t expect justice.

By Neena Satija

Bum Steer: The Judge Who Facebooked Johnny Football’s Speeding Ticket

This is no way to revive The Battle of the Brazos: Ennis municipal court judge W. Lee Johnson, a Baylor alumnus, was publicly reprimanded for his none-too-subtle post about the A&M QB’s apparent moving violation.

By Texas Monthly and Jason Cohen

The Judgment of Sharon Keller

Her decision to close the door on a death row inmate’s final plea has earned the state’s top criminal judge lasting infamy and a misconduct investigation that goes to trial this month. But was she wrong?

By Michael Hall

William Wayne Justice

A tip of the hat to risk-taking, barrier-breaking, establishment-tweaking Texans.

By Michael Hall

Life of the Party

Night of the living Democrat.

By Paul Burka

The Craddickal Right

Tom Craddick of Midland wants to be the first Republican Speaker of the House in Texas since 1873. He may already have the votes, but his critics are questioning his tactics.

By Patricia Hart

Law • Lucius D. Bunton III

Here comes the judge.

By Joe Nick Patoski

Judge Roy Bean

WEST OF THE PECOS THERE IS NO LAW; west of El Paso there is no God.” So went the saying in unsettled West Texas—until the day in 1882 when Roy Bean became a justice of the peace in dusty little Langtry, where the sign over the Jersey Lilly, his combination

By Anne Dingus

The Tort Tax

No high diving boards at public pools. No cameras in operating rooms. All this and more, thanks to lawyers.

By Paul Burka

Misjudged

By Jan Jarboe Russell

Heads, We Win, Tails, You Lose

Highly partisan justices are at the center of the Supreme Court scandal.

By Paul Burka

Blind Justice

Should a judge’s friendships survive his election to the Supreme Court of Texas?

By Ken Case

At the Mercy of the Court

What do drunks, prostitutes, lunatics, and elevators have in common? They’re all part of the weird 24-hour-a-day world of the Dallas County courthouse.

By Jim Atkinson

The Man Who Killed Judge Wood

The end of the Chagra family’s drug empire, a few words on murderer-for-hire Charles Harrelson, and the most incriminating tapes since Watergate.

By Gary Cartwright

The Law West of the Trinity

Justices of the peace, maligned since the days of Roy Bean, don’t operate like other judges. But if lawyers want to get ride of them, they can’t be all bad.

By Paul Burka