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Jimmy Blacklock is the new chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Blacklock was first appointed to the state’s highest court by Governor Greg Abbott in 2018.
Blacklock, who was born in Houston and grew up in Missouri City, was Abbott’s general counsel before working with him as the governor’s attorney general. Blacklock assisted Abbott in spearheading the state’s lawsuit against the Obama administration at the time.
The court’s longest-serving justice, Nathan Hecht, who had reached the state’s obligatory judicial retirement age, is replaced by Blacklock.
Houston Matters producer Mincho Jacob speaks with Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, a professor of law at South Texas College of Law Houston, in the audio above. The two talk about how the state’s highest court might be shaped by the new chief justice.
