Jack Pope

After obtaining his license to practice law in Texas in 1937,[2] Pope "joined his uncle, former state representative Walter E. Pope,"[2] at his law firm in Corpus Christi.[2] His practice consisted of both civil and criminal matters,[2] such as creditors' rights, oil and gas, personal injury, and family law.[3]

He went on to manage his uncle's business, the Highway Transportation Company, a passenger "bus line which operated between Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio."[4] During this time, he was engaged in the legal interpretation of the new transportation regulatory laws, as well as New Deal labor laws.[2]

When the United States entered World War II, Pope joined the Naval Reserve in 1944.[2] He served on the legal staff of the Naval Air Training Station in Corpus Christi, as well as on stations in Washington, D.C. and San Diego,[3] until his discharge in 1946.[2]

In late 1946 Pope was appointed by Democratic Governor Coke R. Stevenson to fill the unexpired term of Judge Allen Wood of the 94th District Court.[4] Governor Stevenson's successor, Beauford H. Jester, then appointed Pope to Judge Wood's four-year term, which began January 1, 1947.[3]

He became Texas' youngest district judge at the time when he sat on the bench at 33 years of age.[2] During his time on the district court bench, Pope began writing for and lecturing at legal institutes and before bar associations across South Texas. His concerns included legal ethics, trial administration, best practices for presenting and excluding evidence, and the Texas jury system. On several occasions he was appointed to other regional courts to assist when another judge was recused from presiding.[3]

In 1950 the Nueces County Bar Association prepared a resolution urging him to campaign for the 4th Court of Civil Appeals in San Antonio.[3] Since 1892, of the fifteen judges who had served on that court, all but five had come from San Antonio.[3] The legal community of Nueces County and the Rio Grande Valley counties hoped to change that trend by nominating and actively campaigning for the young judge.,[3][5] After winning the primary in July, Pope was appointed to the 4th Court of Appeals' bench by Governor Allan Shivers to replace Justice Lorenz Broeter, who had resigned.[3] Pope sat on the court until 1950, whereupon he began serving his own six-year term, with voters subsequently re-electing him to an additional two terms, for a total of 14 years.,[3][4] In 1961 Pope's judicial review of water rights derived from Spanish and Mexican land grants [1] in the case State v. Valmont Plantations set a legal precedent which would thereafter set the standard for the adjudication of Texas water law.[2][3][7]

In December 1963, Pope declared his intention to run for a vacancy position on the Texas Supreme Court, after receiving 80 petitions from 55 Texas counties with over 2,000 signatures of attorneys pledging their support,[4] and in 1964 he was elected an associate justice.[2] During his tenure as an associate justice, he spearheaded an initiative with the State Bar of Texas to institute a program for continuing statewide judicial education, and to develop judicial ethics rules. His efforts resulted in both compulsory continuing judicial education and the Court's adoption of The Texas Code of Judicial Conduct in 1974.[8] He was also directly involved in the creation of the Texas State Law Library in 1971, and served on the Friends of the State Law Library Board of Directors.[2]

When Joe R. Greenhill resigned as chief justice in October 1982, Governor William P. Clements appointed Pope to succeed Greenhill.[9] As a Republican, Clements had crossed party lines to appoint Pope, a lifelong Democrat.[10] However, when Democrat Mark White was elected governor that November, a group of 14 Democratic legislators in the Texas Senate publicly stated that they would "bust"[10] all lame-duck appointments by the outgoing Republican governor[9] regardless of qualifications.[10][11] The Democratic senators attempted to negotiate terms to keep true to their statement of blocking all of the Republican's appointments, while also preserving the power of the Chief Justice position for the Democratic party.[12] However, Pope refused to promise a retirement or interim-only judgeship, saying: "The citizens of Texas do not want their Chief Justice, or any judge, to make a deal to get a job. If he'll make a deal to get a job, he may keep on making deals to keep that job."[12] At a news conference in early 1983, Governor White stated that he did not oppose Pope's confirmation; and in February the Senate voted 29–2 in approval.[10][11]

After federal cuts to legal-assistance financing in the early 1980s, as Chief Justice he advocated a way for Texas to guarantee income to finance legal assistance for the poor by using pooled trust-account interest. This program, known as Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA), is now used in every U.S. state.[13]