Leading Texas Supreme Court Candidate Has Checkered Ethical Past, Religious-Right Worldview (VIDEO)
Justin Elliott | April 7, 2010, 2:20PM
A former Texas legislator who has a good shot at being the next justice on the state's Supreme Court would bring to the job a checkered ethical past, a Bible-based view of the law, endorsements from Chuck Norris and Alan Keyes, and a commitment to "keeping God in the equation" in American civic life.
Meet Rick Green.
Currently locked in a tight runoff in the GOP primary for a six-year term on the Texas Supreme Court, the self-described "patriot and Reagan conservative" came in first in a six-way primary last month. The runoff between Green, who has a law degree but no judicial experience, and Fort Worth family district court judge Debra Lehrmann is next Tuesday.
The winner of the primary will face a Democratic appeals court judge in November; but the seat, along with the entire Texas Supreme Court, is currently held by a Republican.
Green once punched a political rival on election day 2006, and his four-year tenure as a legislator in the Texas House was marked by controversies like the time he filmed an TV infomercial for a nutritional supplement in his Capitol office (more on both of these episodes below).
But what has Texas liberal groups most worried is Green's ideology.
"He has been endorsed by a virtual 'who's who' of religious-right leaders from across the state, and they have been pushing their grassroots supporters to back him," says Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, a liberal watchdog group, in an email to TPMmuckraker.
more...
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/meet_rick_green_next_texas_supreme_court_justice.php?ref=fpb
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