SCOTX Decides 2 Judicial Candidate Challenge Cases, More Percolate

In two separate cases brought by judicial candidates, the Texas Supreme Court decided Wednesday that case law upholding the importance of giving candidates access to the ballot trumped the challenges trying to limit who voters get to choose from on Election Day.

In one of two per curiam opinions issued Wednesday by eight of the justices (Justice John Devine did not participate; more on that below.), the court determined that current Harris County District Judge Brittanye Morris had been wrongly kicked off the ballot by Mike Doyle, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, after she mistakenly put her driver’s license number in a field of a disclosure form where her state bar number should have gone. In the other case, the court rejected First Court of Appeals Justice Peter Kelly’s argument that his challenger, Amber Michele Boyd-Cora, should be kicked off the ballot for her alleged failure to accurately disclose certain information in accordance with a new law should mandate her removal from the ballot.