For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked whether state judges are paid enough, and whether judicial salaries should be unlinked from lawmakers' own pensions.

Gov. Rick Perry's control of the executive branch after 12 years in office is well established. But he's made hundreds of judicial appointments, too.

A runoff for the state district court in Marshall, just east of Longview near the Louisiana border, has two Republicans slinging lawsuits and ethics complaints over provisions of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act.

How do you get state judges to go to a weekday afternoon reception in rural West Texas? It depends on who else is there — and what it could mean for their re-election bids.

The executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance on how drug policies are making Texas’ criminal justice system “horrific,” and who has the most to gain and lose by amending current drug policies.

Texas has scored a 68 out of 100, placing 27th in a national state integrity study. The state got high marks for auditing and for monitoring pension funds, but not as high for accountability of the governor and legislators.

The dog-sniffing evidence that led to the conviction of her father for conspiring to commit murder was unreliable enough for him to be released from prison. So why is his daughter, Megan Winfrey, serving a life sentence for the same crime based largely on the same evidence?

Hey, Texplainer: What will happen to Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams now that the video of him beating his then 16-year-old daughter has gone viral?

DAY 28 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: Under a new tort reform law, the Texas Supreme Court will make rules to expedite certain lawsuits and to allow judges to dismiss meritless ones early on. 

The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a $5-per-patron tax on strips clubs does not violate the First Amendment, adding the latest chapter to a four-year legal battle. 

The Senate unanimously passed a major tort reform bill today that would allow courts to grant attorneys' fees to prevailing parties under certain circumstances.

Texas got one step closer today to becoming one of the few states with a rule that awards legal fees to prevailing parties in lawsuits. 

In advance of today's bill filing deadline, lawmakers have introduced two bills that would require losing parties to pay attorneys' fees in a variety of civil lawsuits.

Advocates say requiring the losing parties in litigation to pay their opponents’ legal fees is the cure for courts choked with the costs of “junk” lawsuits.

In his biennial State of the Judiciary address on Wednesday, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson urged the Legislature to protect legal aid funding — and renewed his call for the reform of judicial elections. 

Over the objections of state Attorney General Greg Abbott, an Austin appellate court has upheld the divorce of a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts.

In a pivotal decision, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the Open Beaches Act may not allow the state to ask landowners to remove private property if a hurricane or other natural disaster moves it within the public section of a beach.