As Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht prepares to retire, he displays on the Supreme Courtroom he helped change

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When Nathan Hecht ran for the Texas Supreme Courtroom in 1988, no Republican had ever been elected to the state’s highest civil courtroom. His election foreshadowed a coming transformation of the courtroom, civil authorized process and Texas itself.

Hecht is the longest tenured Supreme Courtroom justice in Texas historical past. He received six reelections and led the courtroom as chief justice for greater than a decade. He heard greater than 2,700 oral arguments, authored 7,000 pages of opinions, and retires not as a result of he’s had sufficient, however as a result of state legislation requires him to.

Late on a Friday afternoon, simply two weeks earlier than he hung up his gown, he was nonetheless in his workplace, his thoughts mired within the work that was left to be accomplished.

“This is always a really busy time for us, because the opinions are mounting up to be talked about,” he mentioned. “It’ll be busy next week.”

Hecht started as a dissenter on a divided courtroom, his conservative positions on abortion, college finance and property rights placing him at odds with the Democratic majority and a few reasonable Republicans. However as Texas Republicans started dominating up and down the poll, his minority voice grew to become mainstream on one of many nation’s most conservative excessive courts.

In his administration of the courtroom, Hecht has been a fierce advocate for the poor, pushing for extra Authorized Support funding, bail reform and reducing the boundaries to accessing the justice system.

“If justice were food, too many would be starving,” Hecht informed lawmakers in 2017. “If it had been housing, too many could be homeless. If it had been drugs, too many could be sick.”

Hecht’s departure leaves a emptiness that Gov. Greg Abbott, a former justice himself, will get to fill. He might elevate a present justice or appoint somebody new on to the chief justice position. Whoever leads to the highest spot should run for reelection in 2026.

In his typical understated method, so at odds with the bombast of the opposite branches of presidency, Hecht informed The Texas Tribune that serving on the courtroom has been the distinction of his life.

“I have gotten to participate not only in a lot of decisions shaping the jurisprudence of the state, but also in trying to improve the administration of the court system so that it works better and fosters public trust and confidence,” he mentioned.

“So I feel good about the past,” he mentioned. “And I feel good about the future.”

A ‘sea change’

Born in Clovis, New Mexico, Hecht studied philosophy at Yale earlier than getting his legislation diploma from Southern Methodist College. He clerked on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia and returned to Texas, the place his repute preceded him.

As a younger lawyer, Tom Phillips, a former chief justice and now a associate at Baker Botts, reached out to a Dallas legislation agency that had promised to rent him the following likelihood they bought.

“I called them a few months later and said, ‘So I assume you never got a vacancy,’” Phillips remembers. “And they said, ‘Well, we did, but we had a chance to hire Nathan Hecht, so you’ll understand why we went ahead and did that.’”

Hecht was appointed to the district courtroom in 1981 and rapidly made a reputation for himself, pushing the courtroom to modernize their stenography practices and taking the bizarre step of writing opinions as a trial choose. He was elected to the courtroom of appeals in 1986, and ran for Texas Supreme Courtroom two years later.

This race got here at a low level for Texas’ judiciary, after a string of scandals, ethics investigations, eyebrow-raising rulings and nationwide information protection made a number of sitting Supreme Courtroom justices family names — and never in a great way.

Seeing a possibility, Hecht challenged one of many incumbents, a Democrat who’d been referred to as out in a damning 60 Minutes phase for pleasant relationships with attorneys who each funded his campaigns and argued earlier than the courtroom.

Hecht teamed up with Phillips and Eugene Cook dinner, two Republicans who had lately been appointed to the courtroom, and requested voters to “Clean the Slate in ‘88,” separating themselves from the Democrats by promising to solely settle for small donations.

“Party politics were changing in the state at the same time, but the broader issue on our court at the time was to ensure that judges were following the law,” Hecht mentioned. “That was a driving issue.”

Since Phillips and Cook dinner had been incumbents, Hecht was the one one who needed to tackle a sitting Supreme Courtroom justice. And he received.

“It really was a sea change in Texas political history,” Phillips mentioned. “He was the first person ever to do that in a down ballot race, to defeat a Democrat as a Republican.”

Political modifications

Republican dominance swept by the Supreme Courtroom as swiftly because it did Texas writ massive. The final Democrat could be elected to the courtroom in 1994, simply six years after the primary Republican. However even amongst Bush-era Republicans filling the bench, Hecht’s conservatism stood out.

In 2000, he wrote a dissent disagreeing with the bulk ruling that allowed teenagers in Texas to get abortions with a choose’s approval if their mother and father wouldn’t consent, and some years earlier, dominated in favor of rich college districts that needed to make use of native taxes to complement state funds. His pro-business bent stood out subsequent to the courtroom’s historical past of approving excessive greenback payouts for plaintiffs.

Alex Winslow, the manager director of Texas Watch, a client advocacy group, informed the New York Instances in 2005 that Hecht was “the godfather of the conservative judicial motion in Texas.”

“Extremist would be an appropriate description,” Winslow said. “He’s the philosophical leader of the right-wing fringe.”

The one different justice who repeatedly staked out such a conservative place, in response to the New York Instances, was Priscilla Owen, who President George W. Bush appointed to the fifth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals in 2005. Hecht and Owen, who now goes by her maiden identify, Richmond, wed in 2022.

Wallace Jefferson, Hecht’s predecessor as chief justice, mentioned Hecht’s sharp mind and philosophical strategy to the legislation improved the courtroom’s opinions, even when he in the end didn’t aspect with the bulk.

“He was a formidable adversary,” mentioned Jefferson, now a associate at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson. “You knew that you would have to bring your best approach and analysis to overcome Nathan’s approach and analysis … You had to come prepared and Nathan set the standard for that.”

Hecht briefly grew to become a nationwide determine in 2005 when he helped Bush’s efforts to substantiate Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom. As her longtime pal, Hecht gave greater than 120 interviews to bolster Miers’ conservative credentials, jokingly calling himself the “PR office for the White House,” Texas Month-to-month reported on the time.

This advocacy work raised moral questions that Hecht fought for years, beginning with a reprimand from the State Fee on Judicial Conduct. Hecht bought that overturned. The Texas Ethics Fee then fined him $29,000 for not reporting the low cost he bought on the authorized charges he paid difficult the reprimand. He appealed that positive and the case stretched till 2016, when he in the end paid $1,000.

Hecht has largely stayed out of the limelight within the many years since, letting his opinions converse for themselves and wading into the political fray largely to advocate for courtroom reforms. Whereas Democrats have tried to pin unpopular COVID and abortion rulings on the justices in latest elections, Republicans proceed to simply win these down-ballot races.

Hecht is conscious of the notion this one-party dominance creates, and has advocated for Texas to show away from partisan judicial elections. In his 2023 state of the judiciary tackle, Hecht warned that rising political divisions had been threatening the “judicial independence essential to the rule of law,” pointing to feedback by each Democratic politicians and former President Donald Trump.

However in an interview, Hecht confused that many of the circumstances the Texas Supreme Courtroom considers by no means make headlines, and are removed from the politics that dominate Austin and Washington.

“There’s no Republican side to an oil and gas case. There’s no Democrat side to a custody hearing,” he mentioned. “That’s the bread and butter of what we do, and that’s not partisan.”

Hecht’s reforms

In contrast to its federal counterpart, the Texas Supreme Courtroom is commonly a short lived port of name on a choose’s journey. Many, like Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, go away for greater workplace. Others, like Owen and fifth Circuit Decide Don Willett, go away for greater courts. Most, like Phillips, go away for greater pay in personal follow.

However Hecht stayed.

“I didn’t plan it like this,” Hecht mentioned. “I just kept getting re-elected.”

Hecht had been contemplating retirement in 2013, when Jefferson, the chief justice who changed Phillips, introduced he could be stepping down.

“He wanted me to consider being his successor,” Hecht mentioned. “So I did, and here I am. I didn’t say, ‘Let’s spend 43 years on the bench,’ but one thing led to another.”

In 2013, Hecht was sworn in as chief justice by then-U.S. Supreme Courtroom Justice Antonin Scalia, one other nice dissenter whose views later grew to become the bulk.

Whereas the Texas Supreme Courtroom’s political make-up has modified largely with out Hecht’s enter, the internal workings of the courtroom have been below his purview. And that, many courtroom watchers say, is the place his biggest legacy lies.

Hecht ushered in an period of modernization, each to the expertise and the foundations that govern justice in Texas. He led a push to simplify the appellate guidelines, eradicating most of the trapdoors and procedural quirks that led to necessary circumstances being selected technicalities. The courtroom scaled again how lengthy circumstances might drag on by limiting discovery, together with how lengthy a deposition can go. And he ensured each case was determined earlier than the time period ended, just like the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

“I think people generally don’t understand the impact the rules can have on the equitable resolution of disputes, but they’re enormous,” Jefferson mentioned. “Nathan recognized that at an early juncture in his career.”

Hecht pushed Texas to undertake e-filing earlier than many different states, which proved prescient when COVID hit. Hecht, who was then president of the nationwide Convention of Chief Justices, was in a position to assist advise different states as they took their methods on-line.

Hecht additionally devoted himself to enhancing poor Texan’s entry to the justice system, pushing the Legislature to applicable extra funding for Authorized Support and lowering the boundaries to getting significant authorized resolutions. He helped usher by a rule change that may enable paraprofessionals to deal with some authorized issues like property planning, uncontested divorces and client debt circumstances, with no lawyer’s supervision.

“Some people call it the justice gap. I call it the justice chasm,” Hecht mentioned. “Because it’s just a huge gulf between the people that need legal help and the ability to provide it.”

Hecht mentioned he’s glad this has been taken up as a bipartisan concern, and he’s hopeful that the identical consideration shall be paid even after he leaves the courtroom.

“No judge wants to give his life’s energy to a work that mocks the justice that he’s trying to provide,” he mentioned. “For the judiciary, this is an important issue, because when the promise of equal justice under law is denied because you’re too poor, there’s no such thing as equal justice under the law.”

What comes subsequent

Regardless of the sudden departure of their longtime chief, the Texas Supreme Courtroom will return in January to complete out its time period, which ends in April.

Among the many typical parsing of medical malpractice provisions, oil and gasoline leases, divorce settlements and sovereign immunity protections, the excessive courtroom has various extra attention-grabbing circumstances on its docket this 12 months.

Earlier this 12 months, the courtroom heard oral arguments concerning the Division of Household and Protecting Providers’ oversight of immigration detention amenities, and in mid-January, they’ll contemplate Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton’s efforts to subpoena Annunciation Home, an El Paso nonprofit that serves migrants. They’ll additionally hear arguments over Southern Methodist College’s efforts to chop ties with the regional governing physique of the United Methodist Church.

Different circumstances shall be added to the schedule earlier than April.

Phillips, who has argued quite a few circumstances earlier than the Texas Supreme Courtroom since leaving the bench, mentioned Hecht’s loss shall be felt, however he expects the courtroom to proceed apace.

“It’s not a situation like it might have been at some point in the past where if one justice left, nobody would know what to do next,” he mentioned. “It’s an extremely qualified court.”

As for Hecht, he’s tried to place off pondering an excessive amount of about what comes subsequent for him. He nonetheless has opinions to put in writing and work to complete. He is aware of he desires to remain lively in efforts to enhance courtroom administration nationally and in Texas, and he’s threatened his colleagues with writing a tell-all e-book, simply to maintain them on their toes. However past that, he’s ready for the truth of retirement to sink in earlier than he decides on his subsequent steps.

“We’ve got 3,200 judges in Texas, plus adjuncts and associate judges and others,” he mentioned. “I really think it’s such a strong bench, and I am proud to have been a part of it. I look forward to helping where I can.”