AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht asked lawmakers Wednesday to pass legislation to improve security for judges, citing a state judge who was shot and wounded outside her Austin home in 2015.
In his biennial State of the Judiciary address before a joint session of the Legislature, Hecht highlighted the shooting of Judge Julie Kocurek, who was targeted by a gunman in November 2015, to call for passage of a Senate bill with security upgrades for judges and courthouses.
Kocurek has said publicly that she doesn’t believe authorities appropriately handled a tip from an informant about a judge being targeted, and Travis County officials have approved a $500,000 payment to Kocurek to avoid a potential lawsuit claiming authorities didn’t do enough to prevent the shooting. Kocurek suffered several shrapnel wounds and didn’t return to the bench until February last year.
Hecht said he met with Kocurek and was impressed by her mettle to return to work.
“If she left the bench people would think you can threaten a judge and scare her off, maybe scare off other judges, intimidate them, show that justice cannot stand up to violence,” he said. “She would prove that judges sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution would not cower in the face of lawlessness.”
Federal officials in September charged three men in the shooting. One of the men, Chimene Onyeri, had a hearing scheduled in Kocurek’s court where it was anticipated his probation would be revoked and he faced imprisonment. Onyeri has denied any involvement in the shooting, though investigators have said that Onyeri’s scheduled appearance in Kocurek’s court is a possible motive.
Following the attack, a study by the state Office of Court Administration found that hundreds of Texas judges believe security measures currently in place to protect them and courthouse staff are lackluster. Hecht appointed a permanent committee to study security and to issue recommendations based on that study.
The results have been incorporated into the Senate bill that Hecht called on lawmakers to pass. It includes increasing funding for courthouse security, providing security training for judges, appointing a director to assist judges and county officials with security needs and removing the home addresses of judges from personal financial statements filed with the state.
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HOUSE SPEAKER: END STRAIGHT-TICKET VOTING
House Speaker Joe Straus is calling to end Texas’ system of straight-ticket voting, making him the only top Republican in the state to publicly endorse the idea.
Straus said Wednesday Texas should join 40 other states and do away with straight-ticket voting for all elections. Straight ticket voting allows voters to choose a party instead of individual candidates. Straus says ending straight-ticket voting would encourage voters to learn more about candidates.
Straus filed legislation to eliminate straight-ticket voting in 2009 prior to becoming speaker but the measure didn’t pass.
Straus says that too often good officeholders are swept out of down-ballot races “due to the political winds at the moment.”
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GOVERNOR, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY VISIT BORDER
Gov. Greg Abbott suggested Wednesday that Texas and the Trump administration need to secure the U.S.-Mexico border without slowing trade.
Abbott visited the Rio Grande Valley with new U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and said: “We want to achieve safety and security, but we also want to promote economic development.”
Abbott previously applauded President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. But he noted with Kelly that Mexico is Texas’ largest trading partner, saying officials must “ensure we are able to continue that very effective trade.”
Kelly said that while Washington thinks it knows the border, the only opinion that counts “are from the people that work this border,” meaning federal and state security officials.
Abbott and Kelly held a security briefing, then toured the border from Huey helicopters.
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’SANCTUARY CITY’ SPAT
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has blocked funding for the first time over so-called “sanctuary cities” after Austin’s sheriff stopped complying with all federal immigration detainers.
Abbott spokesman John Wittman said Wednesday that $1.5 million in previously approved criminal justice grants will no longer go to Travis County. The move follows Sheriff Sally Hernandez announcing after President Donald Trump’s inauguration that she would stop honoring all immigration holds in her jails.
That blocked funding in Texas’ fifth-largest county is only a fraction of Hernandez’s budget but funds programs such as crime victim services and drug treatment courts.
Abbott has asked the Texas Legislature to prioritize a “sanctuary city” law between now and June. The Republican wants the power to remove locally elected officials and block a wider array of funds.
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EDUCATION BOARD VOTES ON SCIENCE CURRICULUM
The Texas Board of Education has preliminarily voted to ease - but not completely eliminate - state high school science curriculum requirements that experts argued cast doubt on the theory of evolution.
The Republican-controlled board on Wednesday modified language that had asked biology students to consider “all sides” of scientific theory. Teachers and academics said that let religious ideology trump science on evolution, and might have left students believing God created life.
But the board opted to keep other lessons on the origin of life and scrutinizing fossil record gaps, which some conservatives say suggests the influence of a higher power.
The board votes again Friday and in April. It could further modify curriculums either time.
The standards govern what’s covered in Texas classrooms, on standardized tests and in textbooks.
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ON DECK
The House reconvenes at 9 a.m. on Thursday but the Senate won’t meet again until next week. Thursday could be a long and contentious day for the Senate State Affairs Committee, though, as it begins discussing a major “sanctuary city” proposal requiring Texas police to enforce federal immigration laws. Similar bills have stalled in previous session but Abbott’s enthusiastic support - and the fact that lawmakers are beginning to work on the proposal so early - bode well for their chances this time.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Too often, good men and women are swept out of down-ballot offices due to the political winds at the moment,” House Speaker Joe Straus in his statement urging an end to straight-ticket party voting in Texas.
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