Would you like to see the Texas Bar finally stop inappropriately trying to entice the judiciary to punitively rule
against lawyers who might otherwise be willing to accept more (stranded) clients here in Texas?
Bribing the judiciary is a crime here in Texas, pursuant to (for example) Title 8, Chapter 36.08 of the Texas Penal Code. Why not legislatively enact the following proposed rule while demanding that a similar pledge be taken by all who are potentially directly culpable?
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The State Bar of Texas may not try to influence judges, justices, judicial candidates or associations of them using inducements for as long as that bar still gets to administer attorney discipline. Additionally, no Texas state judge, justice or association of any such judges or justices in Texas, or their current employees or descendants may accept any monetarily valuable inducement from the State Bar of Texas, or its employees, its directors or its award winners in the media, for as long as that Bar still administers attorney discipline. Such potentially inappropriately influential inducements for members of the judiciary include, but are not limited to Bar lobbying for judicial salary increases, the providing of free publicity opportunities including through Continuing Legal Education [CLE] course offerings, social media posts, public recognitions and Bar media award winners' publications. Such benefits also include the conducting of judicial polling of the Texas bar membership as well as the providing of job references & recommendations to close affiliates of such judges & justices, and to former judges & justices. To the extent legally permissible, such restrictions also apply to mere declared candidates for the Texas state judiciary and to their employees. Meanwhile the Texas Bar, its employees and associated entities may not permissibly use sovereign immunity as a defense to allegations whenever it is sued for the abovementioned acts of judicial bribery.
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As background, the Texas legal system needs repairing, as the introduction section here helps document:
http://www.texasbarsunset.com/reforms .
Can you believe how historically difficult it has become for civil defendants here in Texas to attract lawyers to their cases & causes? Lawyers fear harassment by the Texas Bar, which has become increasingly easy for aspiring evaders of legal fees to strategically pursue (via the internet) against their (former) attorneys. Lawyers do not trust the legal system as an adequate protection against predatory prosecutions pursued by the (embezzlement-plagued) Texas Bar, either. As a result, as the abovementioned reforms link documents, whereas in 1992 nearly all civil defendants here in Texas had legal counsel, nowadays merely around 25% does. Meanwhile, a litigant is reportedly around seven times less likely to win his or her case if he or she lacks an attorney directly and supportively involved. So how is the status quo healthy for Texas?
Why not prohibit the Texas Bar's giving members of the judiciary anything "of value”? Why not also prohibit the judiciary’s accepting such benefits? Such (potentially corrupting) “gifts” include free publicity, public recognitions, favorable membership polling results, job references & recommendations and also salary increase-lobbying that the general membership of the Texas Bar never approved or was even asked about... If anyone but the Texas Bar did this here in Texas, would it not be considered illegal judicial bribery pursuant to Title 8, Chapter 36.08 of the Texas Penal Code?
Of potential interest, although the Texas legislature does not appropriate funds to the towing industry or to parking facilities, it has nevertheless prohibited such potentially corrupting exchanges in that overall realm. After all, the availability of "gifts" has been known to lower service providers' ethical standards when seeking subcontractors, while ultimately enriching those subcontractors who seek to break the law. Sections 2308.401 & 2308.402 of the Texas Occupations Code therefore basically prohibit parking facilities and towing companies from receiving something "of value" from one another:
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.2308.htm
SUBCHAPTER I. REGULATION OF TOWING COMPANIES AND PARKING FACILITY OWNERS Sec. 2308.401. PARKING FACILITY OWNER PROHIBITED FROM RECEIVING FINANCIAL GAIN FROM TOWING COMPANY OR BOOTING COMPANY.
(a) A parking facility owner may not directly or indirectly accept anything of value from:
(1) a towing company in connection with the removal of a vehicle from a parking facility; or
(2) a booting company in connection with booting a vehicle in a parking facility.
(b) A parking facility owner may not have a direct or indirect monetary interest in:
(1) a towing company that for compensation removes unauthorized vehicles from a parking facility in which the parking facility owner has an interest; or
(2) a booting company that for compensation boots vehicles in a parking facility in which the parking facility owner has an interest.
(c) This section does not apply to a sign required under Section 2308.301 provided by a towing or booting company to a parking facility owner.
Sec. 2308.402. TOWING COMPANY AND BOOTING COMPANY PROHIBITED FROM FINANCIAL INVOLVEMENT WITH PARKING FACILITY OWNER.
(a) A towing company or booting company may not directly or indirectly give anything of value to a parking facility owner in connection with:
(1) the removal of a vehicle from a parking facility; or
(2) the booting of a vehicle in a parking facility.
(b) A towing company or booting company may not have a direct or indirect monetary interest in a parking facility:
(1) from which the towing company for compensation removes unauthorized vehicles; or
(2) in which the booting company for compensation installs boots on unauthorized vehicles.
(c) This section does not apply to a sign required under Section 2308.301 provided by a towing or booting company to a parking facility owner.
Why not similarly restrain the Texas Bar's potential inducements of the judiciary, and the judiciary's acceptance of them?
Compounding matters, it is not as if the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC) is particularly there for us when we need it to be. As they readily admit:
http://www.scjc.state.tx.us/faqs/
“ "Wrong" decisions by a judge are not misconduct, even if those decisions appear to fly in the face of the evidence or appear to be based upon "perjured" testimony, and even if the judge misapplies the law. Appeal may be the only remedy for such a situation, or there may be no remedy.”
It is interesting how Title 8, Chapter 36.08(e) of the Texas Penal Code says the following:
(e) A public servant who has judicial or administrative authority, who is employed by or in a tribunal having judicial or administrative authority, or who participates in the enforcement of the tribunal's decision, commits an offense if he solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept any benefit from a person the public servant knows is interested in or likely to become interested in any matter before the public servant or tribunal.
Why does the Texas Bar enjoy an apparent exclusion from having that provision enforced against Bar allies in the government?
Meanwhile, U.S. Code provision 18 U.S.C. §1346 prohibits depriving others of the intangible right of honest services:
§1346. Definition of "scheme or artifice to defraud" For the purposes of this chapter, the term “scheme or artifice to defraud” includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.
Has the Texas Bar not been getting away with evading the federal code's restrictions, too? For how much longer should this continue?
Are the potential conflicts of interest plaguing the judiciary here in the U.S.A. not bad enough already, even without the Texas Bar's illegal influence peddling? Here are some somewhat recent eyebrow-raising news articles on that subject which might interest you:
and
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/06/08/WHITEHOUSE-AND-KENNEDY-REQUEST-SUPREME-COURT-TRAVEL-RECORDS/
There has been some progress though:
Meanwhile, as for federal prosecutors:
"The Justice Department will no longer allow its political appointees to go to fundraisers or other campaign events."
Is it not time for a substantial overhaul of the Texas Bar's activities?
Submitted...
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Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to share it with others, if you like.
Would you like to exercise your democratic rights for these abovementioned causes,
thereby helping to make a (hopefully favorable) difference?
Here's a list of Texas' state political party platforms regarding the Texas Bar.
To find your elected state senator and representative (etc.):
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us
Meanwhile: Lt. Governor
Additionally:
Here's a (photographic) directory of Texas state senators.
Here are directories of the Texas Senate's Jurisprudence Committee & its State Affairs Committee.
Here's a directory of Texas' House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee
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