I feel this need to wonder aloud about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s choice of his chief of staff to join the Texas Supreme Court.

Jeff Boyd has worked for some high-powered law firms. By all accounts, he’s a Cracker Jack lawyer. More than likely he’s been a fierce advocate for business interests – and there’s nothing wrong with that, per se.

But now he’s going to join – assuming confirmation by the Texas Senate – a nine-member panel, the state’s highest civil appellate court, and will take an oath to administer the law fairly, and without prejudice. Justice-designate Boyd has no experience, based on my understanding of his record, in interpreting the constitutionality of Texas civil law. Perry, of course, said he’ll do all that he swears to do in that regard.

Shouldn’t these men and women have at least some experience as a judge on some lower court before taking a post on one of the state’s two “high courts”? The other chief appellate court is the Court of Criminal Appeals, which has seen its share of goofiness in the past, the most recent notable example being President Judge Sharon “Killer” Keller, who was recently re-elected despite plenty of controversy over the way she’s administered Texas’ highest criminal court.

Gov. Perry has made some fine appointments to the Supreme Court, including Justice Phil Johnson – who actually had appellate court experience as chief of the 7th Court of Appeals in Amarillo.

It seems to me that the state’s enormous network of sitting judges is full of capable individuals who possess the single qualification that the newest Supreme Court justice lacks: actual experience as a judge and not an advocate.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-courts/texas-supreme-court/perry-taps-boyd-supreme-court/