In his State of the Judiciary address, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock declared the Supreme Court of Texas’ commitment to the rule of law and reforms to improve the state courts. He also asked lawmakers to protect families, raise judges salaries, and reminded them of their power to help the court hold other judges accountable.
He outlined the immense power of judges and how they affect Texans. “[Judges] have the power to take their money, and their house, and their children,” he told state lawmakers and members of the judiciary in the Texas House.
While he declared that “the state of the judiciary of Texas is strong,” he noted that multiple reforms were needed.
Families
Blacklock asked lawmakers to rein in the power of the state and judges to terminate the parent-child relationship. He called this power “the civil death penalty.”
According to him, judges see “most vividly” the effects of the fight against crime and drugs in families. He asked lawmakers to help law enforcement to win this fight, particularly against meth. He also asked for the law to be changed so that after officers risk their lives in the line of duty, judges will be required to keep criminals off the street.
But that’s only one side of the fight. Blacklock also called for changes to the law to help families torn apart by drugs. He noted that, in these cases, the temptation too often is to rip these families apart out of a desire to protect innocent children.
“Using the coercive power of the state to take children from their God-given parents, to destroy a family, should never be our first instinct,” he said. “It should always be our very last resort.”
To that end, Blacklock suggested that lawmakers repeal the part of the Texas Family Code, which he called “Subsection O,” that “allows a parent’s rights to be terminated forever” if that parent doesn’t check every box the state requires to regain custody. He supported a measure (House Bill 3281) by State Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) that would do just that.
Blacklock argued that the provision in state law is unnecessary. Another part of the law already allows the termination of parental rights if the parent endangered the child. Subsection O, he argued, gives the state the power to terminate parental rights if they can’t prove such endangerment exists.
“The state only needs to use Subsection O if it can’t prove that the parent has endangered the child,” Blacklock said. “But if the state can’t prove that, then why on earth would we destroy that family?”
He also argued for ensuring that the “desperate parents in these cases” have “vigorous legal representation” and that state family law isn’t “stacking the deck” against them before a case even starts.
Rule of Law and Accountability
Blacklock pledged to lawmakers that the court would strictly apply the law based on what was written, and not read their own desires into it. “Our obligation is to follow the text that you enact. The only exception is if that text violates the Constitution,” he said. “We’re bound not just by the constitutional text, but also by what the text meant to the people who ratified it.”
Blacklock rebuked the idea of a “living constitution,” where judges can revise it at will. “That is not the rule of law. That sounds like the rule of judges,” he said. “Our Constitution means the same thing yesterday, today, and tomorrow until the people of Texas decide to change it. This is called Constitutional originalism.”
He stressed the need to attract and retain “rule of law judges.” He asked lawmakers to hike judicial pay by 30 percent. He pointed out that judicial base pay in Texas hadn’t been increased since 2013, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed inflation had gone up more than 34 percent.
“If we want to attract and retain rule-of-law judges, it is essential to raise judicial salaries significantly this session,” he said.
He acknowledged that there is a “small minority” of judges not pulling their weight. He pledged that the Supreme Court of Texas would use its constitutional power to hold these judges accountable, and that they’re already working on identifying problem judges.
“When we find a serious problem, we can put a judge on notice,” Blacklock said.
If that judge won’t change, he said that Article 15 Section 8 of the Texas Constitution allows the legislature to remove a judge for willful neglect of duty and incompetence.
Additionally, Article 15 Section 6 allows the Supreme Court of Texas to, on a lawyer’s petition, remove a district judge who “negligently fails to perform his duties as judge,” and “who shall fail to execute in reasonable measure the business in his court.”
Blacklock’s call for accountability also targeted the State Bar of Texas, a mandatory association for Texas lawyers.
Blacklock made it very clear the State Bar is to stay out of political fights. “It is therefore absolutely essential that the State Bar of Texas remain completely politically neutral in everything it does, both in a matter of substance and a matter of perception that its actions give to people on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “The Supreme Court will accept nothing less from the State Bar.”
Streamlining
Another priority for Blacklock is “systemic reforms that make legal services more affordable for everybody” and reduce the burden of litigation.
“It’s not just the poor who have trouble affording lawyers. I think it’s most Texans and small businesses,” he said. “How do we raise the supply and reduce the price of legal services? We must be open, I think, to carefully changing the way we regulate the legal profession.”
Blacklock suggested allowing qualified non-lawyers to provide some basic legal services for a profit. Regardless of the end solution, he expressed a desire to work with lawmakers. There’s only one condition he wouldn’t accept. “If the opposition comes from a desire to protect lawyers from economic competition, then I’m not interested.”
He’s also working to change judicial rules to eliminate multiple judges hearing the same case, as he said is happening in two counties within Texas.
In this situation, according to Blacklock, a judge may hear a particular case today, then next week a different judge hears the same case and may not know what happened at the earlier hearing. Blacklock called this having a “central docket.” He wants it gone.
“It’s just hard for me to see how assigning a different judge for each hearing throughout the life of a case promotes the efficient and uniform administration of justice,” he said.
He also wants to create an environment where Texans will prefer to work through differences outside of court, rather than in lawsuits. He outlined what creates such an environment. “Consistency, predictability, and fealty to the law; these are the marks of good judging,” he said. Such an environment, he said, makes it easier to predict what could happen if a matter were brought to court. If the outcome is already clear, then people will be more likely to settle matters outside of the court.
Blacklock ended by affirming his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the constitution and to deliver equal justice under the law for every Texan, young and old, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat.”
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Blacklock as Chief Justice following the retirement of Nathan Hecht in December 2024.
