I don’t care what side of the aisle you are on. I hope you will be as alarmed as I am by a development in 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. In the very charged Tom Delay money-laundering case, the appeals court rejected by 2-1 a motion by Austin District Attorney Ronnie Earle that Justice Alan Waldrop recuse himself. Here’s why the motion was made:
Four years ago, before Waldrop became a judge, he called similar money-laundering allegations in a related civil lawsuit “politically motivated” and an attempt to “harass political opponents.” He was representing a client, a political ally of DeLay’s, who met in campaign strategy sessions with Delay’s associates.
The dissenting vote was Justice Jan Patterson, whom I’ve known for 40 years. Patterson is a decent, fair-minded jurist who happens to be a Democrat. She filed her dissent, but it was blocked by Chief Justice Ken Law, a Republican. Why? I can only suspect that it brutally laid out the conflict of interest that should have precluded Waldrop from judging the matter, much less voting on his own recusal. The matter has now gone to the Texas Supreme Court.
Ken Law is up for re-election on November 4.
