Don Willett Quotes
I've long favored smart judicial-selection reform - every member of my court does - and every legislative session, reform measures are filed... and then they fail.
Willett, Don. "I am Don Willett, a Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas (and the most prolific tweeting judge in America). AMA." Reddit, 14 Mar. 2014.
Over 30 states at the time required state judges to stand for election. The result was that they had to have money to finance their campaigns like any other politicians. The results were many cases of lack of impartiality and enormous public perception that the judges were beholden to large campaign contributors. Justice O’Connor pointed out to them that they had created their own problems by popularly electing judges.
G. Harold Carswell was nominated to a vacancy on the Supreme Court by President Nixon. The nominee did not have a reputation as a distinguished jurist. Senator Hruska defended the nomination:
The issue of how the federal judiciary would be selected was one of the more hotly debated issues during the Constitutional Convention.
In America, the best attorneys have stayed in private practice where they could make much more money than government service or become professors and scholars of law. In either case, most have a track record that would make Senate confirmation difficult even if they wanted to be Federal Judges. A few like Abraham Lincoln went into politics. The Supreme Court is somewhat of an exception because of the power it wields, but even then many great attorneys have not been so inclined. Federal judges have usually been above average as attorneys, but not among the greatest.
Johnson thought that he was 5 votes short to pass the Economic Opportunity Act to launch his War on Poverty. This quotation shows the master of Presidential vote getting in action. Jones came from a very conservative and racist district in Florida. In addition to the general conservative concern about the bill. White Southern racists were still angry about the Civil Rights Act that had just passed and saw the anti-poverty programs as another opportunity for the Federal Government to have racially integrated employment and training programs in the South. If Jones voted for the anti-poverty bill, he might well be defeated in the 1966 election. The President promised to appoint him as a Federal Judge—a lifetime appointment—if he were defeated. A potential problem was that there would not likely be a vacant judgeship open in Alabama. Johnson promised that he would create another judgeship for Jones if necessary—a judgeship that was not really needed. Jones was reelected and President Johnson did not have to create a new judgeship.
Donny Ray Willett is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was previously appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas on August 24, 2005, when former Justice Priscilla Owen created a vacancy on that court by joining the Fifth Circuit.
