austinbar.org MAY 2017 | VOLUME 26, NUMBER 4
Honoring Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice, Jack Pope BY OSLER MCCARTHY, STAFF ATTORNEY FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION, SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
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ears before he died on February 25, 2017, Jack Pope pulled a book from a section at his home library in Austin, a copy of “Minimum Standards of Judicial Administration.” “This is my Bible,” said the former Texas Supreme Court chief justice, whose tenure as a judge was longer than any Texas Supreme Court justice in history. But the book Jack Pope called his Bible might have been instead one of four volumes of “Jurisprudence” by the great legal scholar Roscoe Pound. Or any of the other hundreds of books he pointed to on shelves packed floor to ceiling with biographies and treatises in a library larger than most suburban garages. “These,” he said of the books lining his walls, “are my friends.” With his chiseled features and shock of white hair, Hollywood could not have cast a better judge. Andrew Jackson Pope Jr., who helped establish formal judicial education for Texas judges, fought for a voluntary judicial-ethics
code when judges had none and fought again to make that code mandatory and enforceable, died Feb. 25 in his Austin home at the age of 103. He served Texas for 39 years on the district court, the court of appeals, and the state’s highest civil court. He is buried in the Texas State Cemetery next to his wife of 66 years, Allene. As a court of appeals justice, Pope’s reassessment of water rights conveyed by Spanish and Mexican land grants changed Texas water law forever. As chief justice, he forged a way to guarantee income to finance legal assistance for the poor. Concerned with double litigation in the same case, he won legislative support for statutory changes to thwart “forum shopping.” “I’m a common-law lawyer,” he proudly would proclaim. “And I was a common-law judge.” “Chief Justice Pope was an icon for the Texas judiciary: a judge of enormous character and uncompromising integrity,” Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht told an audience
“I’m a common-law lawyer. And I was a common-law judge.” – the late former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jack Pope
Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jack Pope spending time with his “friends” before his death.
gathered for Pope’s funeral—“judicial ethics incarnate; a fascinating story-teller with a distinct voice, sparkling eyes and a wry sense of humor; a strong and humble leader; a wise and patient mentor; and a good and dear friend.” The sweep of his reforms and his opinions changed Texas law forever, said Austin attorney Steve McConnico, a former law clerk who delivered Pope’s eulogy. “What he did for trial practitioners, there’s no way to measure it,” McConnico said. Pope earned his law degree from the University of Texas in 1937 and began his practice in Corpus Christi under an uncle’s tutelage. Following a stint in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Pope was
appointed to his first bench in Corpus Christi in 1946 and served for four years. In 1951 he left for San Antonio’s Fourth Court of Appeals, having beaten three contenders without a runoff in the all-important Democratic primary, becoming the first justice on the court from south of San Antonio. He served on that court for 14 years until his election to the Supreme Court of Texas in 1964. Gov. Bill Clements appointed him chief justice in 1982 to succeed Joe Greenhill. Greenhill, who retired, urged Clements, a lame duck Republican governor, to appoint Pope. Fourteen Democratic senators pledged to continued on page 5