Crapshoot Justice Politics, Money, and the Texas Judiciary

The reality for Texas judges is that in order to be elected or reelected, they must be either rich or really good at begging. Increasingly, they also have to be "pure" supporters of their political party. Texans tell pollsters that the big campaign money needed for elections influences judicial decisions--an opinion with which lawyers agree, as do a surprising number of judges. But most Texans want to keep electing judges [despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of us don't even vote In judicial elections]. The end result is a judicial election system that is merely a crapshoot. Judges and lawyers have talked about the problem for years and can't agree on what should be done. With "Crapshoot Justice, which features interviews with lawyers and former judges, the authors' intent is to keep stirring the pot until the system is changed.Kinch, Sam, Jr. is the author of 'Crapshoot Justice Politics, Money, and the Texas Judiciary', published 2003 under ISBN 9781571687609 and ISBN 1571687602.