Wikipedia

Jimmy Blacklock

Jimmy Blacklock (born August 28, 1980)[1] is an American attorney and judge currently serving as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

Jimmy Blacklock
Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 2, 2018
Appointed byGreg Abbott
Preceded byDon Willett
Personal details
Born (1980-08-28) August 28, 1980 (age 44)
Missouri City, Texas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationUniversity of Texas, Austin (BA)
Yale University (JD)

Background

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Blacklock was born Houston, Texas. His family moved to Missouri City, Texas,where he attended public school in Fort Bend County, graduating from Elkins High School. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin before attending Yale Law School[2], where he was a member of the Federalist Society and the President of the Yale Law Republicans.[3] After graduation, He clerked for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Career

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After clerking for Judge Smith, Blacklock worked in private law practice in Houston and Austin. He also served briefly in the United States Department of Justice by President George W. Bush.[4] Blacklock left private practice to work for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Under Abbott’s leadership, Blacklock defended the State of Texas’s Voter ID laws, its abortion laws, its traditional marriage laws, and its 2011 redistricting maps.  Blacklock advocated in court for religious liberty and gun rights.  He also served as Deputy Attorney General, a role that included management of the Opinions, Open Records, and Public Finance divisions of the Attorney General’s Office. 

In 2015, Blacklock followed Abbott to the Governor’s office, where he served as Abbott’s general counsel.  He continued to represent the State in court while also coordinating the Governor’s oversight of executions and advising the Governor on legislation and other matters. Governor Abbott announced Blacklock’s appointment to the Texas Supreme Court in November 2017, and Blacklock was sworn in on January 2, 2018[5][6]

Electoral history

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Blacklock was up for election for the first time on November 6, 2018.[7] He did not have an opponent in the Republican Primary. In the general election, he defeated Democratic challenger Steven Kirkland, a district court judge in Harris County (Houston), with 53.16% of the statewide votes. The statewide turnout in this race was 51.74%.[8]

Blacklock ran successfully for re-election in 2024.  Once again, he was not challenged in the primary.  In the general election, he defeated DeSean Jones, a district court judge in Harris County, with 58.3% of the statewide votes.[9]  Blacklock’s 16.6% margin was the highest margin for a Texas Supreme Court candidate since 2014.

Judicial Career

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Blacklock is considered one of the most conservative members of the Texas Supreme Court.

In May 2020, Blacklock wrote a concurring opinion calling into question the constitutionality of the government’s response to COVID-19, writing, “If we tolerate unconstitutional government orders during an emergency, whether out of expediency or fear, we abandon the Constitution at the moment we need it most.”[10]  Blacklock was the first Justice to publicly dissent from the Texas Supreme Court’s emergency orders closing courthouses throughout Texas because of COVID-19.  In February 2021, Blacklock delivered a speech at the University of Chicago law school, entitled “The Constitution After Covid,” in which he again expressed skepticism regarding the constitutionality of various COVID-era government measures.[11][12]

In August 2021, Blacklock, writing for the Texas Supreme Court, ruled that the Texas Constitution "authorizes each legislative chamber to compel the attendance of absent members, by physical compulsion if necessary."[13] The ruling was in response to Texas House Democrats fleeing the state to deny the chamber the quorum needed to vote on a controversial election bill.[14]

In February 2022, Governor Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate child abuse claims filed against parents who might be providing their transgender children with gender-transition procedures.[15] After the ensuing legal battle, Blacklock wrote for a unanimous Court to strike down a state-wide injunction issued by a lower court judge blocking investigation into parents of transgender youths, but he also ruled that the governor did not have the authority to order such investigations.[16][17] However, Blacklock and two other justices dissented from the Court's decision to block investigation into Doe's family, who had initiated the lawsuit against Abbott.[18]

In February 2023, Blacklock wrote the Court’s opinion holding that local government officials in Texas lacked the authority to implement COVID-related emergency orders that were more restrictive than Governor Abbott’s more lenient COVID policies.[19][20]

In June 2024, Blacklock wrote an opinion concurring in the Court’s decision to uphold Texas’s ban on transgender medical treatments for minors.[21]  Blacklock’s opinion criticized Bostock v Clayton County, the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court extended employment discrimination protections to transgender people. According to Blacklock, the Texas litigation “asks whether the sovereign People of Texas have the power, through their representatives in the Legislature, to answer moral and political questions about childhood transgender therapy in accordance with the Traditional Vision of what it means to be human, male and female. The answer is yes.”  He continued, “Only by commandeering the Constitution in service of the Transgender Vision, a moral vision that has never once—from 1836 to 2024—obtained the consent of the People of Texas, could any court give the plaintiffs what they seek.”  Blacklock’s contrast between the “Traditional Vision” of human nature and the “Transgender Vision” has been widely commented upon and has been employed by advocates defending bans on transgender treatments for minors.[21]

Personal life

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Blacklock lives in Austin with his wife and their three daughters, where they are members of Tarrytown Christian Church.[22]

References

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  1. ^ "Jimmy Blacklock". OurCampaigns.
  2. ^ "Abbott names top adviser to spot on Texas Supreme Court". 27 November 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Jimmy Blacklock '05 Appointed to Texas Supreme Court | Yale Law School". law.yale.edu. 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  4. ^ "Jimmy Blacklock - Ballotpedia". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  5. ^ "Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint general counsel Jimmy Blacklock to Texas Supreme Court". Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  6. ^ TEGNA. "Gov. Abbott appoints Jimmy Blacklock to Texas Supreme Court". Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  7. ^ Tribune, The Texas (2018-02-13). "He's been a Texas Supreme Court justice for a month. Now Jimmy Blacklock must become a candidate". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  8. ^ "Office of the Secretary of State 2018 General Election - Unofficial Election Results as of 11/9/2018 3:18:34 PM". Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2018-11-09.
  9. ^ "Texas Supreme Court elections, 2024". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  10. ^ https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1446506/200340c.pdf
  11. ^ "The Constitution after Covid – Justice Jimmy Blacklock". Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. 2023-04-03. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  12. ^ University of Chicago Federalist Society (2022-02-08). The Constitution After COVID. Retrieved 2024-11-25 – via YouTube.
  13. ^ No. 21-0667 (SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS August 17, 2021).
  14. ^ "Texas Supreme Court rules fleeing Democrats can be arrested". 18 August 2021.
  15. ^ "You, Your Children, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Child Abuse: Guide for Parents Who are Mexican Nationals". PsycEXTRA Dataset. 2007. doi:10.1037/e581772010-001. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  16. ^ "You, Your Children, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Child Abuse: Guide for Parents Who are Mexican Nationals". PsycEXTRA Dataset. 2007. doi:10.1037/e581772010-001. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  17. ^ "In Re Greg Abbott In His Official Capacity As Governor Of The State Of Texas; Jaime Masters In Her Official Capacity As Commissioner Of The Department Of Family And Protective Services; And The Texas Department Of Family And Protective Services, 22-0229 - Supreme Court of Texas Blog". data.scotxblog.com. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  18. ^ "In Re Greg Abbott In His Official Capacity As Governor Of The State Of Texas; Jaime Masters In Her Official Capacity As Commissioner Of The Department Of Family And Protective Services; And The Texas Department Of Family And Protective Services, 22-0229 - Supreme Court of Texas Blog". data.scotxblog.com. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  19. ^ https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1456741/220124.pdf
  20. ^ Fechter, By Joshua (2023-06-30). "Texas Supreme Court says Gov. Greg Abbott's COVID ban on local mask rules was lawful". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  21. ^ a b https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1458814/230697c1.pdf
  22. ^ "Jimmy's Biography - Meet Jimmy Blacklock for Texas Supreme Court". Jimmy Blacklock for Texas Supreme Court. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
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Legal offices
Preceded by Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
2018–present 		Incumbent


 

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