If campaign dollars bias judicial decisions, large numbers of citizens, attorneys, court personnel, and even judges appear to believe not merely that contributors gain but that large groups of Texans lose in the courts. Slim majorities of judges (fifty-six percent) and the public (fifty percent) but only pluralities of court personnel (forty percent) and lawyers (thirty-seven percent) agree that "Courts treat males and females alike." Minorities of every group except judges agree that "Courts treat all people alike regardless of their race or ethnicity." Most strikingly, not even a majority of judges (only forty-two percent) can agree that "Courts treat poor and wealthy people alike." About four-fifths of the public and attorneys (seventy-eight and eighty-one percent respectively), two-thirds of court personnel (sixty-nine percent), and fifty-eight percent of judges express at least a reasonable doubt about the fairness of the Texas courts to rich and poor alike.

back