Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Boyd to retire

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Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Boyd will retire this summer, leaving yet another vacancy for Gov. Greg Abbott to fill.

Boyd was appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry in 2012, after serving as the governor’s chief of staff and general counsel. He won reelection in 2014 and 2020, and would be up for reelection in 2026. Boyd said in a statement Wednesday that he would leave the court near the end of the term this summer.

Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock said Boyd is a “model of integrity, impartiality and diligence.”

“His sharp insights and thorough analysis have shaped and strengthened the opinions of the Court, and his abundant good humor around the office have made him a beloved friend and mentor to Justices and staff alike,” Blacklock said. “Justice Boyd leaves the Supreme Court, and the law of our great State, better than he found it.”

Boyd did not share his next steps, except to say it was “time to let another take the helm.”

By retiring before the end of his term, Boyd gifts Abbott the power to decide who will fill that seat on the bench. Abbott, a former Supreme Court justice himself, has appointed six of the nine justices on the bench, including Blacklock and, recently, James Sullivan, both of whom served as his general counsel before ascending.

Abbott’s next appointment will undoubtedly be a Republican attorney or judge cut from the same cloth. Speaking to a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society last week, Abbott said he looks to appoint judges based on “certain core principles,” like originalism and strict constructionism.

“I'm looking for … people who will apply conservative applications of the law, not expanding it, but deciding on the basis of what legislators or Congress or the Constitution itself decides,” he said. “And there's an abundance of those types of either lawyers or judges already that I have the opportunity to choose from.”

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