It's a Real Choice for the GOP Nomination for Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals

 

Justice David L. Bridges of Dallas's Fifth State Court of Appeals is running to be Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court.  He got his high school diploma from Rains High School, served two years in the Army, worked his way through college assembling air conditioners for General Electric, and after that, worked as a landman. He graduated law school at Texas Tech, was allowed to practice his third year of law school.helping indigent families and migrant workers with family law issues. He worked for the Palo Duro Legal Aid through the Presbyterian Church in West Texas, then the Smith County District Attorney's Office first trying misdemeanors, then felonies. After two years, he went to work in Upshur County for the District Attorney and was First Assistant. He became a senior trial attorney for the State Bar of Texas. In 1990, he was named Regional Counsel for the State Bar and was responsible for Dallas County and forty-four other counties. I went back to Austin and was named First Assistant and Chief of Litigation and handled all the attorney discipline cases in Texas. After a short time of being in private practice, he has spent the last 22 years as a Justice on Dallas's Fifth Court of Appeals.  He is running against incumbent Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and urges voters to Google Sharon Keller ethics.

Former Assistant Attorney General Appointed to Empty Dallas State Appeals Court Seat

Jason Boatwright, a former assistant attorney general who worked closely with Governor Greg Abbott when Abbott was Texas Attorney General, has been named to Dallas's state Fifth Supreme Judicial District Court of Appeals. He replaces David Lewis who resigned in lieu of discipline for alcoholism and other mental health problems. Boatwright was chair of the opinions committee of the AG's office. Texas officials may ask the Attorney General to give legal opinions relating to issues in their work (Since AGs are not judges, they may give advisory opinions,) These opinions do not have force of law as published opinions of a court, but (1) they can be gotten much faster than an appeals court opinion, and (2) it gives legal cover to the requester; it may turn out that a court finds an AG opinion wrong, but following that opinion will innoculate the requester from an accusation of bad faith or criminal intent.

Boatwright's professional history is mostly out of Austin, but he's been practicing a few years in Dallas.

Dallas Court of Appeals Justice Resigns in Lieu of Facing Removal Proceedings

David Lewis, a justice on Texas's Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, resigned just as removal papers were filed against him with the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday. Lewis suffered from alcoholism and depression and had been suspended without pay since September 2014. According to the records of the Texas Commission for Judicial Conduct quoted in the Dallas News blog of the Dallas Morning News, Lewis was "erratic, hostile and threatening." A doctor chosen by the Judicial Conduct Commission reported that Lewis's problems began as early as 2013 and that a scan of his brain in 2015 is of a person who is experiencing decreased cognitive function and is trying to cover that up.
Governor Abbott will appoint a person to fill Lewis's seat on the bench until his term ends in 2018. Lewis is a Republican. Texas's Fifth Court of Appeals is the state appeals court for Collin, Dallas, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties.
Hat tip to the Texas Lawyer newspaper's online bulletin.