Courts of appeals

Back Boatman in the GOP primary; Dems should support Zimmerer and Chimene.

The courts of appeals serve as the mid-tier between trial courts and courts of last resort, and they hear nearly every kind of legal conflict — civil and criminal. Appellants ask these courts to set things right after they go wrong at the trial level, ensuring that lower courts follow the law. In the Houston area, lawyers go to the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals, which cover Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Waller and Washington counties.

Voters should look for jurists who have the skills, background and analytic disposition to ruminate on the nitty-gritty aspects of jurisprudence that come before these intermediate courts. The job is more like being a professor than a trial attorney. Each court has nine members. Justices serve six-year terms.

These endorsements are also an opportunity to remind voters that the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals should be brought under scrutiny for potentially violating the Voting Rights Act. Most courts of appeals serve their own distinct areas. These two courts each cover the same 10-county region. This overlap allows largely Anglo suburbs to dilute the voting power of cohesive racial minorities in Harris and Fort Bend counties. To guarantee that voters truly have their say, these two courts of appeals should be separated into discrete districts — at least until Texas changes the manner by which we select judges.

These endorsements are also an opportunity to remind voters that the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals should be brought under scrutiny for potentially violating the Voting Rights Act.