Supreme Court
TEXAS SUPREME COURT advisory
Contact: Osler McCarthy
512.463.1441 or email
December 6, 2018
THE PUBLIC PART OF HIS TENURE OVER, PHIL JOHNSON
STEPS DOWN FROM THE BENCH IN HIS LAST ARGUMENT THURSDAY
Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson left the courtroom Thursday, more than 13 years after he came to it, but this time to a standing ovation. He will leave office December 31.
“You feel like in this position you can make a difference. The law is the superstructure of society, the framework for doing what we can do,” he said upon announcing his retirement last month. “I’ll miss that I was contributing. That’s what I’ll miss about it.”
His term ends in December 2020. When his resignation is effective he will have served as a Texas judge for 20 years, seven as a justice, then chief justice, on the Amarillo Court of Appeals.