Editorial argues that Texas Supreme Court
Justice Nathan Hecht "got off easy when the state ethics commission fined him
only $29,000 for violating campaign finance law by not reporting discounted
legal fees." In 2005, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded
Hecht in connection with his efforts to help Harriet Miers secure a nomination
to the Supreme Court. In fighting the reprimand, Hecht accumulated nearly half
a million dollars in legal fees. Jackson
Walker, a firm having cases before the Texas Supreme Court, provided a discount
on Hecht's bill. Editorial argues that "it was smelly enough" that Hecht took the discount from a firm with business
before his court and that "[h]e is only one part of a system of justice that
reeks of favoritism to special interests."
