Deck 8: The Judicial System in Texas

Question 1

How many cases move through the Texas judicial system annually?

A) 5.1 million
B) 7.4 million
C) 12.2 million
D) 14 million

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What percent of the Texas bar is female?

A) 35 %
B) 41%
C) 46%
D) 55%

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Only Texas and one other state have dual high courts. What is that other state?

A) Nebraska
B) Oklahoma
C) Georgia
D) Florida

Answer 3

B

Question 4

How many district courts are there in Texas?

A) 254
B) 361
C) 403
D) 482

Question 5

What percent of Texas judges run unopposed for re-election?

A) 80%
B) 60%
C) 40%
D) 20%

Question 6

Which of the following is not one of the three Texas Supreme Court Chief Justices who has called for limiting the role of money in judicial elections?

A) John Hill
B) Wallace Jefferson
C) Harriet Miers
D) Tom Phillips

Question 7

Texas has one of the highest incarceration rates (prisoners per 100,000 of population) in the nation at:

A) 460
B) 529
C) 627
D) 701

Question 8

As a region, the South leads the nation in executions. What region comes second?

A) West
B) Midwest
C) Northeast
D) Middle Atlantic

Question 9

What proportion of Texas state judges first come to the bench by appointment?

A) 30%
B) 50%
C) 70%
D) 90%

Question 10

How many judges work in the Texas judicial system?

A) 1,500
B) 2,611
C) 3,224
D) 5,411

Question 11

Municipal courts handle 3.9 million cases annually. What percentage of them are traffic cases?

A) 35%
B) 55%
C) 70%
D) 85%

Question 12

Civil law deals with all but which of the categories of legal matters:

A) tort law
B) family law
C) contracts
D) property crime

Question 13

Who is the complaining party in a criminal case?

A) the plaintiff
B) the witness
C) the state
D) the prosecutor

Question 14

What percent of the 105,125-member Texas bar is Anglo or white?

A) 95%
B) 78%
C) 66%
D) 52%

Question 15

What percent of Texas lawyers and judges are black?

A) 25%
B) 18%
C) 12%
D) 6%

Question 16

The first Latina member of the Texas Supreme Court was:

A) "Hope" Andrade
B) Sonia Sotomayor
C) Eva Guzman
D) Leticia Van de Putte

Question 17

Which level of the Texas court system deals with the most cases each year?

A) municipal courts
B) justice of the peace courts
C) district courts
D) appellate courts

Question 18

How many appellate court districts are there in Texas?

A) 6
B) 14
C) 21
D) 30

Question 19

How many formal opinions are written in the Texas Supreme Court each year?

A) 40
B) 75
C) 110
D) 215

Question 20

What percent of trial court cases are tried before a jury?

A) 65%
B) 45%
C) 15%
D) 1%

Question 21

Of the 1,532 persons executed in the U.S. since 1982, how many have been executed in Texas?

A) 314
B) 411
C) 571
D) 601

Question 22

What state is second after Texas in most executions since 1982?

A) Virginia
B) Georgia
C) Florida
D) Illinois

Question 23

In 2010, Governor Perry issued a posthumous pardon of a man who died in prison wrongly convicted of rape as DNA evidence showed to late. Who was he?

A) Jerry Wayne Johnson
B) William Wayne Justice
C) Tim Cole
D) Tom Phillips

Question 24

Death sentences have declined since the legislature approved the sentence of "life without parole" in:

A) 1992
B) 1995
C) 2001
D) 2005

Question 25

The federal judicial system employs 1,000 judges while the Texas judicial system employs more than three times that. What is it about state judicial responsibilities that make them so labor intensive?

Question 26

Most Texas judges are selected in partisan elections. Some argue that judges should not be subjected to fund raising and partisan campaigning. What other methods of judicial selection are available and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

Question 27

What explains Texas' commitment to prisons and the death penalty?

Question 28

How does civil law differ from criminal law in standards of proof and kinds of punishment?

Question 29

If appellate courts do not hear evidence, how do they arrive at their decisions?

Question 30

What is the difference between county courts and county courts at law?

Question 31

Describe the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act (JCFA) of 1995.

Question 32

The standard of proof is lower in civil cases than in criminal cases.

Question 33

About eighteen percent of Texas judges are Hispanic.

Question 34

County courts at law serve the limited legal needs of rural communities.

Question 35

Texas is one of only four states to select all of its state judges in partisan elections.

Question 36

Three-fourths of Texans show up for jury duty when called.

Question 37

This Texas judge,__________ , described himself as "the only law west of the Pecos."

Question 38

A court's_________ is its constitutional or legal mandate to hear certain kinds of cases.

Question 39

_________was the first black Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

Question 40

The merit system for judicial selection is often called the_________ Plan.

Question 41

A_________ is responsible for determining whether sufficient evidence exists to charge an individual with a crime and proceed to trial.