Page 2 THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, OCT. 24, 1975
Judges agree
Part 4 of 9
Change needed New charter merges courts
By JACK HODGES
Battalion Staff Writer
85th Dist. Court Judge W. C.
Davis said Thursday he favors the
merging of the Texas Supreme
Court and the Court of Criminal
Appeals as proposed in the upcom
ing constitutional revision election
Nov. 4.
“But we sometimes handle both
cases and there should not be much
trouble if there is a change,” Davis
said.
Davis said that the proposed revi
sion should speed up the court sys
tem and reduce the case load be
cause of the combination.
“It seems to me, when there is a
person’s life on the line and there
are 14 courts for civil appeals and
only one for criminal appeals, there
should be a change, Davis said.
“If there is an overloading of cases
in a particular court district then the
state Supreme Court could assign
judges from another court district to
relieve the stress, Davis said.
Associated Press!
AUSTIN, Tex. — Texas needs
judicial reform so desperately that
many top officials support the new
constitution principally because of
its simplified judiciary article.
But included among the critics of
the article are a few heavyweights,
including the presiding judge of
the state’s highest criminal court,
John F. Onion Jr.
Proposal Two on the constitution
revision ballot, if passed, will com
bine the Texas Supreme Court with
the Court of Criminal Appeals. The
two courts then would become the
Texas Supreme Court with one
chief justice and eight other jus
tices, with not fewer than five in
session at any time.
There are a lot of districts that
have small caseloads and help from
those districts could benefit others,
he added.
Special News
Analysis Series
The change would rename the
chief justice of the Supreme Court
to the Chief Justice of Texas.
“I think Briscoe’s stand against
the proposals came out a little late
but he has his opinion and I don t
want to argue with others who come
out against the proposals,” Davis
said.
The Courts of Civil Appeals
would no longer be constitutionally
restricted to review only civil cases
if the proposal passes.
There is a controversy that the
two courts have specialized in either
civil or criminal matters.
Brazos County Judge Bill Vance
said he is also for the merging of the
two courts also and viewed the
proposal much the same as Davis.
“It creates a unified court system
and will help alleviate case over
loads, ’ Vance said. The court sys
tem would be under the Supreme
Court of Texas which would have
the final say on criminal and civil
cases, he added.
Reform is needed, says Onion,
but this article fails to provide it.
Texas Supreme Court Chief Jus
tice Joe Greenhill, however, says it
does.
How can a voter make up his
mind when the state’s top two
judges differ? Especially when
they use the same language to jus
tify their positions?
Here is Onion: “It’s not necessar
ily the punishment but the swift
ness and certainty of punishment, I
believe, that deters crime. What
good are speedy trials if we don’t
have speedy appeals?”
Here is Greenhill: “Swiftness of
trial and punishment is the most
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Che Battalion
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor
or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of
the university administration or the Board of Regents. The
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The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College
Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods.
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LETTERS POLICY
Texas 77843.
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Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room
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Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob G. Rogers, Chairman; Dr.
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Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper.
MEMBER
The Associated Press, Texas Press Association
Editor James Breedlove
Assistant Editor Roxie Hearn
Production Manager T. C. Gallucci
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Photography Director jack Holm
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crime.
Onion’s detractors say his real
opposition is to the loss of his title
as presiding judge.
The main features of the
judiciary article are the merger of
the Supreme Court and the Court
of Criminal Appeals, and the crea
tion of a unified judicial system
under the administrative control
of the Supreme Court.
The five criminal appeals judges,
and the court’s two special commis
sioners, would become Supreme
Court judges, raising the total from
nine to 16. Death and retirement
will drop it back to nine.
So Onion wouldn’t be out of a
job, just a title.
“I’m not sure there s that much
difference between being an as
sociate justice on the Supreme
Court and being presiding judge on
the Court of Criminal Appeals, ” he
said.
Onion argues that criminal ap
peals will be prolonged, not
speeded up, by giving the 14 courts
of civil appeals criminal jurisdiction
and allowing the Supreme Court to
hear appeals from those inter
mediate courts.
The time it will take for the top
court to decide whether or not to
take a case, added to the time
needed to write opinions on those
it accepts, will clog up the criminal
docket worse than it is now. Onion
says.
Onion finds opposition to his
position on his own court. Judge
Truman Roberts predicted two
years ago the court’s huge caseload
would lead to a scandal. Onion said
recently that problem has been
solved. Roberts disagrees.
“We have heard arguments in
120 cases, which we have not de
cided, another 543 have been filed
for arguments, and there are ap
proximately 2,000 cases around the
state in which notice of appeal has
been given. This court simply can
not handle 2,600 cases, ’ says
Roberts.
The courts of civil appeals with a
total of 42 judges, have a caseload
one-fourth the size of the caseload
of Onion’s and Robert’s court.
Among others opposed to the
new judiciary article is Dallas
Democratic state Sen. Oscar
Mauzy, who says the other 48
states that have one top appellate
court are the ones that are out of
step, not Texas.
“The State Bar of Texas and the
Supreme Court of Texas have rec
ognized the specialization in law, as
we’ve seen in medicine during the
last decade, by providing for
specialized law licenses, says
Mauzy. “To practice certain kinds
of law now, you have to have a cer
tain kind of license issued by the
Supreme Court, on certification.
“Those special areas are domes
tic relations law, labor law and
criminal law.
“Now, if it makes sense to re
quire the lawyer who practices
criminal law — and I’m not one of
them -— to take a specialized
examination and to be given that
specialized license, then it makes
sense to me that the judges who try
those criminal cases should also he
specialists.
The AFL-CIO opposes the
judiciary article because it allows
the state to appeal criminal cases
where a trial judge declares a law
unconstitutional and where the
Supreme Court feels it needs to
clear up conflicting views of the
new courts of appeal.
Some county judges who never
went to law school oppose the arti
cle because it would giv e the legis
lature the power to take away their
jurisdiction to try cases and put it in
new circuit courts whose judges
must he lawyers.
Some district and county clerks
oppose it because local voters
would he allowed to merge the two
offices.
There are many top public fi
gures who support the article,
eluding former Texas Chiefjusti)
Robert W. Calvert, Lt. Gov. Bi
Hobby, and Atty. Gen. John HI
A major selling point thesuppu
ters use is the granting of cej
tralized administrative powers:
the Supreme Court. Texas is lli
only state whose judiciary lackslii
power. The high court wouldhan
authority to transfer cases betsvee
courts at the same level or assij
judges within or between level
Supporters say this will change
inefficient system into an efficia
Tuesday: Proposed changesi
the voting and election article!
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