I am proud to serve on the Board of Advisors of the Journal of Law & Civil Governance at Texas A&M. My article, Bilateral Judicial Reform, was published in the inaugural issue, alongside contributions from Senator Mitch McConnell, Judge Reed O'Connor, and Judge James C. Ho. This past weekend, Judge Ho also delivered remarks at the journal's banquet gala. I am happy to share Judge Ho's speech, which will be published later in the journal.
Fighters, Climbers, and the War for the Judiciary
James C. Ho
We're here to celebrate the launch of a new law journal. But as my law clerks have told me, there are over a thousand law reviews in Westlaw's law review database. Why on earth do we need another?
How you answer that question may depend on how you view the legal academy—and how you think much of the academy views our country and our Constitution.
As Americans, we believe that we should be governed by the people—not by lawyers or law professors. We didn't fight a Revolutionary War to replace one king in royal garb with hundreds of kings in judicial robes.
Our legal system should only decide legal disputes—not political ones. Political disagreements should be resolved through elections—and by officials directly accountable to the people.
In sum, our legal system is supposed to be politically neutral.
But would anyone seriously claim that the median academic or most legal elites are in fact politically neutral—and not systemically, institutionally biased against essentially half the country?
I would submit that therein lies the pitfalls—as well as the potential—for a new law journal.
