FaninAma
9/4/2006, 08:41 PM
Except this version is taking place East of the Pecos. :D
Free football tickets? Judges say yes
Legal scholars say UT's offers raise ethical concerns; justices say practice is no big deal.
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 02, 2006
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Thirty judges accepted free or discounted tickets to University of Texas football games during the past five seasons, according to records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act.
The recipients included some members of the state's highest civil and criminal courts, as well as federal trial and appellate judges. The judges typically attended pregame receptions sponsored by the UT System with free food and beverages, including beer and wine.
UT System records show the university supplied 449 tickets to the judges from the 2001 through 2005 seasons. Of those tickets, 280 were free. The judges paid face value for the rest but did not make a contribution to UT athletics required of ordinary fans for the right to buy tickets. Some judges took two tickets for a single game, while others accepted as many as 44 distributed among 23 games.
Legal scholars say the practice raises ethical questions.
The scholars note that state and federal judicial conduct codes say judges generally should not accept gifts from parties whose interests have come or are likely to come before them. The university is frequently involved in litigation, and a few of the judges have handled cases involving the school.
However, the conduct codes permit judges to accept "social hospitality." The occasional ticket could be regarded as such, especially if the judge in question is not presiding over a university-related case. But a steadier supply of tickets probably does not qualify as ordinary hospitality, the scholars say.
"It seems to me that something like this, particularly when you're talking about 30 or 40 tickets, which are worth a lot of money, is improper for a judge to accept," said Jeffrey Shaman, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago and co-author of a textbook on judicial ethics.
"It looks as if the university is trying to curry favor with the judge, and it looks as if the judge is accepting this attempt to curry favor. I think it's wrong for the university to do this, and judges should know better."
The judges, nearly half of whom earned at least one degree at UT, and university officials say there is nothing improper about the practice.
The judges say that the tickets are a social courtesy, that the practice would not affect their treatment of the university in court and that they sometimes donate money or time to the university. School officials and officials of the UT System, which oversees the campus, say they have long offered tickets to judges, lawmakers and other public officials to maintain good relations.
"It's a small favor for the time I know we over here in the federal courthouse give the university," said U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, referring to panels he and other judges serve on regularly at the UT School of Law. Sparks was the recipient of 34 tickets, of which 30 were free.
"I personally don't think there's anything there that's improper. Of course, if I did I wouldn't have gone to the receptions and received the tickets," added Sparks, who has presided over a trade secret case involving the university since 2001 and who previously oversaw litigation concerning race as a factor in admissions to the law school. His rulings in these and other cases have sometimes gone against the university and sometimes in the school's favor.
Judge Barbara Hervey of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said she accepted 26 tickets, including 10 for free, "to support the University of Texas as another state agency. I felt like they were doing a hospitable social thing by including members of state government."
UT-Austin President William Powers Jr. said judges "are important public officials, and it benefits us to have them included in our activities. I think what we're doing is appropriate. We certainly would take advice from the judges if they felt otherwise."
The overarching question in judicial ethics is whether a judge's actions could undermine public confidence in the integrity and independence of the courts, said George Kuhlman, ethics counsel for the American Bar Association.
Kuhlman declined to address the Texas matter, but said that in the Chicago area, where the association is based, tickets to University of Notre Dame football games "are considered gold ingots from Fort Knox more than they are ordinary social hospitality."
Longhorn tickets, at least during the team's recent winning seasons, would also seem to have a 24-karat quality. The face value of tickets during the past five years has ranged up to $175 for the Rose Bowl contest in January between UT and the University of Southern California.
But an ordinary fan wishing to sit near where the judges watch games at Royal-Memorial Stadium — between the goal and the 50-yard lines — might have to contribute hundreds or even thousands of dollars to UT's Longhorn Foundation, which raises money for athletics, for the right to purchase tickets at face value. Several judges said they were not aware of that rule.
Highly prized tickets, such as those for the Sept. 9 game against Ohio State University, can fetch a couple of thousand apiece on Internet resale sites.
The UT System cut back in 2003 on the number of judges to whom tickets are offered and began providing them at face value only this season, which begins with today's home game against the University of North Texas.
Mark Yudof, chancellor of the UT System, declined to comment. Michael Warden, a spokesman for the system, said making tickets available to judges, lawmakers and other public officials is a longstanding and legal practice, "and there is nothing inappropriate or unethical in that practice."
The Texas penal code allows judges and other public servants to accept an item issued by a governmental entity for use of the entity's property. That includes tickets to a public university's athletic venues, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. The tickets do not have to be disclosed on personal financial statements filed with the commission, but a few judges do so anyway.
Determining whether any state judge's acceptance of tickets violated the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct is a complex matter that would involve the number of tickets, whether the university was a litigant before the judge, whether the judge disclosed the tickets and other factors, said Seana Willing, executive director of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The code of conduct for federal judges and a related set of gift regulations also would require a judge-by-judge, point-by-point review before anyone could conclude that a particular gift is right or wrong, said Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
One judge in Texas got in trouble several years ago for his handling of complimentary UT tickets. Steve Mansfield, then a member of the state Court of Criminal Appeals, was arrested by campus police in 1998 for trying to scalp his tickets. He pleaded no contest to trespassing and was reprimanded by the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Judges in other states have been disciplined for accepting tickets to professional sports events.
The Ohio Supreme Court publicly reprimanded a judge in 2002 for taking tickets to Pittsburgh Steelers football games from a lawyer handling cases in his court. Two years earlier, the Florida Supreme Court issued a public reprimand against a judge for accepting tickets to Florida Marlins baseball games from a law firm whose lawyers appeared before him.
Those decisions, while not binding in Texas, show that the courts concluded that tickets did not amount to ordinary social hospitality, said Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University who specializes in judicial ethics.
Donald Burnett Jr., dean of the University of Idaho College of Law and a former judge, said even tickets that arguably fall within ordinary social hospitality should be declined if the donor has a matter pending before the judge. A judge who accepted dozens of tickets might have to recuse himself or herself in a case involving the university, he and other scholars said.
"I'd worry more about the recidivist, the repeat offender, than a judge who accepts the occasional ticket," said James Alfini, president and dean of the South Texas College of Law and a member of an American Bar Association panel on judicial conduct. "On the other hand, I'd have to ask if there really is mischief here."
The judges in Texas say it's simply not a big deal.
James Nowlin, a senior U.S. District Court judge who received 28 tickets, including 20 that were free, said he has made $26,100 in contributions to the university since 2000. Nowlin said that far exceeds the value of the complimentary tickets, which, in recent years, he has given to a law clerk and the clerk's spouse.
"My view is if anybody gives $26,000 to the university, they ought to get a few tickets," Nowlin said.
Harry Lee Hudspeth, a senior federal judge who accepted 44 tickets, all but three for free, said: "I just never viewed it as a transaction that would trigger that concern. If the University of Texas at Austin were a plaintiff or defendant in some case before me, I might have reservations," but that's never happened.
Dale Wainwright, a state Supreme Court justice who accepted five tickets, of which four were free, rejected any suggestion of impropriety. "There are no actions I take that violate the law or ethics," he said.
The Supreme Court's chief justice, Wallace Jefferson, has not accepted Longhorn tickets — not because he has any queasiness about the ethics of doing so but because he reserves weekends for his son's soccer games and other family activities.
"I don't see a gift like that as influencing a judge one way or another," Jefferson said. "Reasonable people I suppose could differ on that."
Recipient Position Number of tickets*
Harry Lee Hudspeth senior U.S. district judge 44
William Wayne Justice senior U.S. district judge 44
Marilyn Aboussie former chief justice, Texas 3rd Court of Appeals 36
Sam Sparks U.S. district judge 34
James Baker former Texas Supreme Court justice 28
Mike Keasler Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 28
James Nowlin senior U.S. district judge 28
Barbara Hervey Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 26
Lawrence Meyers Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 25
Carl Dally former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 16
Jack Onion Jr. former presiding judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 16
Mack Kidd deceased justice, Texas 3rd Court of Appeals 14
Tom Price Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 13
David Puryear Texas 3rd Court of Appeals justice 12
Bea Ann Smith Texas 3rd Court of Appeals justice 10
Fortunato Benavides 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge 9
Cheryl Johnson Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 9
Orlando Garcia U.S. district judge 8
Guy Herman Travis County probate judge 8
Charles Holcomb Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 7
Craig Enoch former Texas Supreme Court justice 6
Xavier Rodriguez U.S. district judge 6
Dale Wainwright Texas Supreme Court justice 5
Priscilla Owen 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge 4
Nathan Hecht Texas Supreme Court justice 3
Paul Green Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Sharon Keller presiding judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 2
Tom Phillips former chief justice, Texas Supreme Court 2
Steven Wayne Smith former Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Don Willett Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Total tickets 449
*A discounted ticket includes one for which the judge paid face value but not the contribution to University of Texas athletics required of ordinary fans for the right to purchase a ticket at face value. Source: University of Texas System
Free football tickets? Judges say yes
Legal scholars say UT's offers raise ethical concerns; justices say practice is no big deal.
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 02, 2006
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Thirty judges accepted free or discounted tickets to University of Texas football games during the past five seasons, according to records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act.
The recipients included some members of the state's highest civil and criminal courts, as well as federal trial and appellate judges. The judges typically attended pregame receptions sponsored by the UT System with free food and beverages, including beer and wine.
UT System records show the university supplied 449 tickets to the judges from the 2001 through 2005 seasons. Of those tickets, 280 were free. The judges paid face value for the rest but did not make a contribution to UT athletics required of ordinary fans for the right to buy tickets. Some judges took two tickets for a single game, while others accepted as many as 44 distributed among 23 games.
Legal scholars say the practice raises ethical questions.
The scholars note that state and federal judicial conduct codes say judges generally should not accept gifts from parties whose interests have come or are likely to come before them. The university is frequently involved in litigation, and a few of the judges have handled cases involving the school.
However, the conduct codes permit judges to accept "social hospitality." The occasional ticket could be regarded as such, especially if the judge in question is not presiding over a university-related case. But a steadier supply of tickets probably does not qualify as ordinary hospitality, the scholars say.
"It seems to me that something like this, particularly when you're talking about 30 or 40 tickets, which are worth a lot of money, is improper for a judge to accept," said Jeffrey Shaman, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago and co-author of a textbook on judicial ethics.
"It looks as if the university is trying to curry favor with the judge, and it looks as if the judge is accepting this attempt to curry favor. I think it's wrong for the university to do this, and judges should know better."
The judges, nearly half of whom earned at least one degree at UT, and university officials say there is nothing improper about the practice.
The judges say that the tickets are a social courtesy, that the practice would not affect their treatment of the university in court and that they sometimes donate money or time to the university. School officials and officials of the UT System, which oversees the campus, say they have long offered tickets to judges, lawmakers and other public officials to maintain good relations.
"It's a small favor for the time I know we over here in the federal courthouse give the university," said U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, referring to panels he and other judges serve on regularly at the UT School of Law. Sparks was the recipient of 34 tickets, of which 30 were free.
"I personally don't think there's anything there that's improper. Of course, if I did I wouldn't have gone to the receptions and received the tickets," added Sparks, who has presided over a trade secret case involving the university since 2001 and who previously oversaw litigation concerning race as a factor in admissions to the law school. His rulings in these and other cases have sometimes gone against the university and sometimes in the school's favor.
Judge Barbara Hervey of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said she accepted 26 tickets, including 10 for free, "to support the University of Texas as another state agency. I felt like they were doing a hospitable social thing by including members of state government."
UT-Austin President William Powers Jr. said judges "are important public officials, and it benefits us to have them included in our activities. I think what we're doing is appropriate. We certainly would take advice from the judges if they felt otherwise."
The overarching question in judicial ethics is whether a judge's actions could undermine public confidence in the integrity and independence of the courts, said George Kuhlman, ethics counsel for the American Bar Association.
Kuhlman declined to address the Texas matter, but said that in the Chicago area, where the association is based, tickets to University of Notre Dame football games "are considered gold ingots from Fort Knox more than they are ordinary social hospitality."
Longhorn tickets, at least during the team's recent winning seasons, would also seem to have a 24-karat quality. The face value of tickets during the past five years has ranged up to $175 for the Rose Bowl contest in January between UT and the University of Southern California.
But an ordinary fan wishing to sit near where the judges watch games at Royal-Memorial Stadium — between the goal and the 50-yard lines — might have to contribute hundreds or even thousands of dollars to UT's Longhorn Foundation, which raises money for athletics, for the right to purchase tickets at face value. Several judges said they were not aware of that rule.
Highly prized tickets, such as those for the Sept. 9 game against Ohio State University, can fetch a couple of thousand apiece on Internet resale sites.
The UT System cut back in 2003 on the number of judges to whom tickets are offered and began providing them at face value only this season, which begins with today's home game against the University of North Texas.
Mark Yudof, chancellor of the UT System, declined to comment. Michael Warden, a spokesman for the system, said making tickets available to judges, lawmakers and other public officials is a longstanding and legal practice, "and there is nothing inappropriate or unethical in that practice."
The Texas penal code allows judges and other public servants to accept an item issued by a governmental entity for use of the entity's property. That includes tickets to a public university's athletic venues, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. The tickets do not have to be disclosed on personal financial statements filed with the commission, but a few judges do so anyway.
Determining whether any state judge's acceptance of tickets violated the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct is a complex matter that would involve the number of tickets, whether the university was a litigant before the judge, whether the judge disclosed the tickets and other factors, said Seana Willing, executive director of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The code of conduct for federal judges and a related set of gift regulations also would require a judge-by-judge, point-by-point review before anyone could conclude that a particular gift is right or wrong, said Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
One judge in Texas got in trouble several years ago for his handling of complimentary UT tickets. Steve Mansfield, then a member of the state Court of Criminal Appeals, was arrested by campus police in 1998 for trying to scalp his tickets. He pleaded no contest to trespassing and was reprimanded by the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Judges in other states have been disciplined for accepting tickets to professional sports events.
The Ohio Supreme Court publicly reprimanded a judge in 2002 for taking tickets to Pittsburgh Steelers football games from a lawyer handling cases in his court. Two years earlier, the Florida Supreme Court issued a public reprimand against a judge for accepting tickets to Florida Marlins baseball games from a law firm whose lawyers appeared before him.
Those decisions, while not binding in Texas, show that the courts concluded that tickets did not amount to ordinary social hospitality, said Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University who specializes in judicial ethics.
Donald Burnett Jr., dean of the University of Idaho College of Law and a former judge, said even tickets that arguably fall within ordinary social hospitality should be declined if the donor has a matter pending before the judge. A judge who accepted dozens of tickets might have to recuse himself or herself in a case involving the university, he and other scholars said.
"I'd worry more about the recidivist, the repeat offender, than a judge who accepts the occasional ticket," said James Alfini, president and dean of the South Texas College of Law and a member of an American Bar Association panel on judicial conduct. "On the other hand, I'd have to ask if there really is mischief here."
The judges in Texas say it's simply not a big deal.
James Nowlin, a senior U.S. District Court judge who received 28 tickets, including 20 that were free, said he has made $26,100 in contributions to the university since 2000. Nowlin said that far exceeds the value of the complimentary tickets, which, in recent years, he has given to a law clerk and the clerk's spouse.
"My view is if anybody gives $26,000 to the university, they ought to get a few tickets," Nowlin said.
Harry Lee Hudspeth, a senior federal judge who accepted 44 tickets, all but three for free, said: "I just never viewed it as a transaction that would trigger that concern. If the University of Texas at Austin were a plaintiff or defendant in some case before me, I might have reservations," but that's never happened.
Dale Wainwright, a state Supreme Court justice who accepted five tickets, of which four were free, rejected any suggestion of impropriety. "There are no actions I take that violate the law or ethics," he said.
The Supreme Court's chief justice, Wallace Jefferson, has not accepted Longhorn tickets — not because he has any queasiness about the ethics of doing so but because he reserves weekends for his son's soccer games and other family activities.
"I don't see a gift like that as influencing a judge one way or another," Jefferson said. "Reasonable people I suppose could differ on that."
Recipient Position Number of tickets*
Harry Lee Hudspeth senior U.S. district judge 44
William Wayne Justice senior U.S. district judge 44
Marilyn Aboussie former chief justice, Texas 3rd Court of Appeals 36
Sam Sparks U.S. district judge 34
James Baker former Texas Supreme Court justice 28
Mike Keasler Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 28
James Nowlin senior U.S. district judge 28
Barbara Hervey Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 26
Lawrence Meyers Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 25
Carl Dally former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 16
Jack Onion Jr. former presiding judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 16
Mack Kidd deceased justice, Texas 3rd Court of Appeals 14
Tom Price Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 13
David Puryear Texas 3rd Court of Appeals justice 12
Bea Ann Smith Texas 3rd Court of Appeals justice 10
Fortunato Benavides 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge 9
Cheryl Johnson Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 9
Orlando Garcia U.S. district judge 8
Guy Herman Travis County probate judge 8
Charles Holcomb Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge 7
Craig Enoch former Texas Supreme Court justice 6
Xavier Rodriguez U.S. district judge 6
Dale Wainwright Texas Supreme Court justice 5
Priscilla Owen 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge 4
Nathan Hecht Texas Supreme Court justice 3
Paul Green Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Sharon Keller presiding judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 2
Tom Phillips former chief justice, Texas Supreme Court 2
Steven Wayne Smith former Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Don Willett Texas Supreme Court justice 2
Total tickets 449
*A discounted ticket includes one for which the judge paid face value but not the contribution to University of Texas athletics required of ordinary fans for the right to purchase a ticket at face value. Source: University of Texas System