Congress passed the Local Access to Courts Act this week, creating a new federal courthouse in College Station as part of the Houston Division in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The act passed Monday, 378-10, and awaits President Donald Trump’s signature.
Longtime Texas trial lawyer Gaines West said he’s been trying to get a federal courthouse in College Station for 40 years.
“This effort that has consumed so much of my active practice life over the years is like planting a shade tree that I won’t really get a chance to sit under,” the partner at West, Webb, Allbritton & Gentry said. “But that’s all paying it forward, and that’s what we need to do.”
He added that U.S. District Chief Judge Randy Crane has a federal bench appointee in mind already who he wants moved to College Station. First, he will secure temporary space before selecting a site, likely near Texas A&M University, for a new courthouse, which is expected to take about two years to build.
“Chief Judge Randy Crane should get a lot of this credit because he got a lot of doors slamming in his face, and he put his foot in the door,” West said.
Chief Judge Crane did not respond to requests for comment.
West said the cases from Walker County will go to the new courthouse, which will benefit the division. He added that it will also be good for jurors and for security when transporting prisoners.
“It’s just the right time for this community. I always felt like this was not an ‘if’ issue; it was a ‘when’ issue,” West said.
The act requires the new courthouse to be built in College Station, not Bryan.
“This is going to really be a great new beginning for the Bryan-College Station area and the surrounding counties,” West said.
Eastern District of Texas
Michael C. Smith explained that something similar happened in the Eastern District of Texas when it opened its Plano courthouse 20 years ago.
“It doesn’t create a new division. It just means you can have two courthouses in a district, and that was the way we were dealing with massive, massive population growth in the Collin County-Plano area: to create a courthouse there,” Smith said.
The Plano courthouse serves as a second location for the Sherman Division. He said it can serve as a lesson for the next steps.
Smith said the district will likely need to build a courthouse in College Station before attempting to establish a new division.
“They have several more steps to go down, but it does look like that’s a really good location for a courthouse, given the growth,” Smith said.