Render ballot justice to these five justices

[white cloud]

CORPUS CHRISTI — The ballot box is a terrible way to choose judges. There are all kinds of reasons why it's not generally a good idea to have judicial candidates face the rough justice of the voters.

But the five justices of the Texas Supreme Court who ruled in favor of gutting the Texas Open Beaches Act have managed to put a favorable light on using the ballot to "throw the bums out" when it comes to them.

A lot of us probably thought that the Open Beaches Act was as close to sacrosanct as Texas law can be.

The law, passed in 1959, put into the legal code what had been common law since the founding of Texas: that the Gulf beaches are public property.

The fundamental legal principle that Gulf beaches are a public easement was reinforced in 2009 when the voters put it into the Texas Constitution.
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/apr/22/render-ballot-justice-to-these-five-justices/

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. The same has been done in California

Calif. Chief Justice Bird and two of her colleagues were removed at one time. Issue IIRC was refusal to allow the death penalty.