By DAVID YATES
Texas Supreme Court justice Debra Lehrmann will have to fend off a fellow Republican challenger in 2016.
On June 16 Michael Massengale, a First Court of Appeals justice, announced his candidacy for Place 3, Lehrmann’s seat.
“Texans deserve the option to elect a Supreme Court justice who is truly committed to the conservative legal philosophy of carefully and fairly applying laws as they are written and not legislating from the bench,” said Massengale.
“When a court interprets a constitution or a statute, people should expect judges to articulate what the law is and not impose their personal opinions about what the law should be.”
Former Gov. Rick Perry appointed Messengale to the Houston appellate court in 2009. He won election in 2010 and was re-elected to a full term in 2012.
“Anybody can proclaim the slogan of never ‘legislating from the bench.’ But the true reflection of an appellate justice’s legal philosophy is found in the reasoning of written legal opinions,” said Messengale.
“My record on the First Court of Appeals, including over 400 majority opinions written over nearly six years, is proof of my commitment to predictable judging based on the Rule of Law and a fair-reading textualist approach to statutory interpretation.”
Massengale is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Before joining the court, he was a partner in the trial department at Baker Botts, where he specialized in commercial litigation involving corporate mergers and acquisitions, fraudulent transfers, securities fraud, and antitrust.
He has also tried a number of personal injury and property damage lawsuits to jury verdicts.
Some of Massengale’s early endorsements include Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, Texas Home School Coalition and Texas Conservative View PAC.