Beto O’Rourke didn’t win his Senate race in Texas. Don’t be too sad, he’s a white man who lost, so Democrats will probably nominate him to run for president.
Despite losing, O’Rourke’s coattails helped a lot of other people win. Notably for this space, Texas Democrats were able to win a bunch of judicial elections in places where Texas Democrats usually aren’t even competitive. Texas’s Fifth Judicial District, which hadn’t elected a Democratic judge for 19 years, elected eight Dems, flipping party control of that court.
Electing Democrats for the first time since before 9/11 is bound to cause some ripples in the Texas legal market. Texas is the most important state when it comes to oil and gas regulation, especially given that the country is now run by anti-environment de-regulators who are confident that they will be long dead before their children and grandchildren have to pay the cost for environmental destruction.
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The Biglaw firm of Haynes and Boone is wasting no time cozying up to the new judges. Here’s an email that went around the firm this weekend:
That’s just good client services. I’m being serious. Haynes and Boone has clients who will have business in front of these new judges. Haynes and Boone probably hasn’t spent a lot of time ingratiating itself to Democrat judges. This is just how you make a freaking sausage.
Haynes and Boone isn’t doing anything particularly wrong. What would be wrong would be if these judges took the Haynes and Boone money, and gave the firm’s lawyers favorable treatment going forward. Oh, no judge will admit to such corrupt thoughts. But… it’s worth pointing out that Beto O’Rourke, the man to whom these judges likely owe their positions, took no corporate money during his campaign.
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We’ll see if these newly elected judges want to break the wheel, or if they’ve just been waiting for their turn at the top.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.