Legal News

Dissent-ion in the Court: First Mississippi, Now Texas

By Dan Slater

In August, we imagined it was quite rare — if not “a first” — for a court to prevent one of its members from filing a dissent. We can’t call it a trend yet, but perhaps the practice is catching on.

The August case allegedly occurred at the Mississippi Supreme Court. Today, we have word from Texas that Jan Patterson, an appellate court justice, is accusing Chief Justice Ken Law of refusing to file her dissent in a money-laundering case involving two associates of former U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay. According to this story in the American-Statesman, she’s asking the Texas Supreme Court to intervene.

Law did not respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.

Patterson, a Democrat, apparently claims that Law, a Republican who’s up for re-election, blocked the filing of her dissent to last week’s ruling on whether fellow Justice Alan Waldrop, also a Republican, should step aside. The Travis County DA had asked the court to remove Waldrop because of allegations of bias.

Last week, the Appeals Court — without explanation, notes the Statesman — shot down the prosecutor’s motion. The court issued a one-sentence ruling, saying the entire court, minus Waldrop, had considered the motion to remove Waldrop.

But Patterson’s filing with the Texas Supreme Court reportedly says she informed her colleagues that she would file a dissent to the ruling on Waldrop’s staying in the case. She wrote that Law instructed the court clerk not to file her dissent.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).