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Don?t Mess With Texas Supreme Court Justice Medina

By Don Cruse

If you think sparring with a judge during oral argument is tough, try sparring with a judge in a gym, in a sport featuring spin kicks, and a referee that yells “fight!”

Justice David Medina’s biography notes that “in college he competed on the university’s karate . . . team.”.

He really wasn’t kidding.

Turns out, he recently participated in a match — with a law clerk. Thanks to the power of YouTube, you can watch from the comfort and relative safety of your office.

• Preliminaries to the match and Round 1 (2:31)

• Round 2 (1:33)

• Round 3 and announcement of winner (2:33)

If you can’t decide whether to click on one of those links, you may want to read how the matches are scored:

Scoring: 1 point for punches or kicks to the body and punches to the head or face; 2 points for kicks to the head; jumps or spins add a point, so 3 points for spin kicks to the head (2 for spin kicks to the body). There are five judges, including the referee.

Full post as published by Supreme Court of Texas Blog on July 21, 2010 (boomark / email).