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John Devine (Texas)
2013 - Present
2030
12
John Devine (Republican Party) is a judge for Place 4 of the Texas Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 1, 2013. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Devine (Republican Party) ran for re-election for the Place 4 judge of the Texas Supreme Court. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Devine first became a member of the Texas Supreme Court through a partisan election. He was first elected to the court in 2012 to the seat vacated by David M. Medina. To read more about judicial selection in Texas, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Devine received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Prior to assuming his seat on the state supreme court, Devine served as a district judge for Texas' 190th District Court and as an appointed special judge for the Harris County justice of the peace courts.[3] Devine received his undergraduate degree from Ball State University in 1980 and his J.D. from South Texas College of Law in 1986.[4]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Incumbent John Devine defeated Christine Weems in the general election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John Devine (R) | 57.3 | 6,256,496 |
 | Christine Weems (D) | 42.7 | 4,656,560 | |
| Total votes: 10,913,056 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Matthew Sercely (L)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Christine Weems advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Christine Weems | 100.0 | 825,485 |
| Total votes: 825,485 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Incumbent John Devine defeated Brian Walker in the Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Devine | 50.4 | 921,556 |
 | Brian Walker | 49.6 | 905,418 | |
| Total votes: 1,826,974 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Matthew Sercely advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on April 14, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | Matthew Sercely (L) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
Devine received the following endorsements.
2018
- See also: Texas Supreme Court elections, 2018
General election
General election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Incumbent John Devine defeated R.K. Sandill in the general election for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Devine (R) | 53.7 | 4,399,890 |
 | R.K. Sandill (D) | 46.3 | 3,792,144 | |
| Total votes: 8,192,034 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
R.K. Sandill advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | R.K. Sandill |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4
Incumbent John Devine advanced from the Republican primary for Texas Supreme Court Place 4 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | John Devine |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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2012
- See also: Texas judicial elections, 2012
Devine was elected to the Texas Supreme Court on Nov. 6, 2012, defeating Charles E. Waterbury and Tom Oxford with 75.1 percent of the vote.[5]
Devine won 34.2 percent of the vote in the Republican primary on May 29, 2012. Because no candidate received over 50 percent of the vote, he and incumbent Justice David Medina competed in a primary runoff on July 31, 2012.[6] Devine defeated incumbent Medina in the runoff, receiving 53.3 percent of the vote to Medina's 46.7 percent.[7]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Devine did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
John
Devine
Texas
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Devine ran as a Republican. He donated $4,000 to Republican candidates and organizations. Texans for Family Values donated $49,141 to his campaign, and Texans for Lawsuit Reform donated $46,967 to his campaign, both of which donate to Republican candidates more frequently than Democratic candidates. The Texas Republican party donated $36,327 to his campaign. At the time of his election, Texas was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
The section below lists noteworthy cases heard by this judge. To suggest cases we should cover here, email us.
Texas Supreme Court rules against Port Authority of San Antonio (2015)
In June 2015, the Texas Supreme Court ruled 7-1 that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must block the release of information from a lease between Boeing and the Port Authority of San Antonio. The reasoning was that the information, according to Boeing, could benefit the company's competitors. Previously, the state had blocked the release of information only when proprietary information and trade secrets were at stake.[10]
The case concerned the lease between Boeing, an aerospace manufacturer, and the Port Authority for a manufacturing facility at Kelly Field Annex, formerly an air force base. In 2005, a former Boeing employee requested the release of the full lease; Paxton's office argued that Boeing's efforts to redact parts of the lease were not protected under the state's Public Information Act. Boeing argued that the information requested could allow a competitor to calculate the San Antonio operation's overhead costs, potentially putting Boeing at a disadvantage for future government projects.[10]
Two lower courts sided with the Attorney General's office before the Supreme Court reversed their decisions and favored Boeing. Judge John Devine wrote for the majority that the test for whether information can be blocked "is whether knowing another bidder’s overhead costs would be an advantage, not whether it would be a decisive advantage."[10] He also cited a recent Attorney General ruling allowing Governor Greg Abbott confidentiality in his meetings with out-of-state businesses he sought to attract to Texas, on the grounds that the governor's office is a "competitor" for the business' jobs. In the only dissent, Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd argued that Boeing's defense was "too hypothetical and speculative" to qualify for state protection.[10] He wrote that Boeing failed to identify a specific federal contract for which it is competing or any specific competitor; he also wrote that Boeing failed to identify a specific advantage a competitor might garner through the release of the information.[10]
The case drew attention for its reach. Within three months of the ruling, the Attorney General's office cited Boeing v. Paxton at least three times when siding with private companies under government contract.[10]
State supreme court judicial selection in Texas
- See also: Judicial selection in Texas
The nine justices of the Texas Supreme Court are selected in statewide partisan elections. The elected justices serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court.[11]
Qualifications
To serve on the Supreme Court, a justice must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a resident of Texas;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- between the ages of 35 and 75;[12][13] and
- a practicing lawyer and/or justice for at least 10 years.[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court is selected by voters at large. He or she serves in that capacity for a full six-year term.[11]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement who must be confirmed by the Texas Senate. The appointee serves until the next general election, in which he or she may compete to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Candidate Texas Supreme Court Place 4 |
Officeholder Texas Supreme Court Place 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Texas Judicial Branch, "Justice John Phillip Devine," accessed February 1, 2019
- ↑ Texas Bar, "Justice John P. Devine," accessed August 4, 2021
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2012 General Election Summary," accessed August 4, 2021
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Election Results," accessed August 4, 2021
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "Republican Primary Runoff Results," accessed August 4, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Governing, "Court makes it easier for companies to keep government contracts secret in Texas," September 25, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Texas," archived October 3, 2014
- ↑ While no justice older than 74 may run for office, sitting justices who turn 75 are permitted to remain on the court until their terms expire.
- ↑ Texas State Historical Association, "Judiciary," accessed September 12, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Texas Supreme Court Place 4 2013-Present |
Succeeded by - |
Federal courts:
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas
State courts:
Texas Supreme Court • Texas Court of Appeals • Texas Court of Criminal Appeals • Texas District Courts • Texas County Courts • Texas County Courts at Law • Texas Statutory Probate Courts • Texas Justice of the Peace Courts
State resources:
Courts in Texas • Texas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Texas
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