Texas chief justice calls for truancy reform, veterans help
By Chuck Lindell – American-Statesman Staff
Speaking to both houses of the Legislature on Wednesday, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht pressed lawmakers to decriminalize school truancy and spend more on legal aid to military veterans.
Hecht also reminded legislators of their duty to ensure that indigent and middle-class Texans are not priced out of access to the courts — whether it be for civil-court remedies, such as restraining orders for victims of domestic abuse, or for legal help for poor defendants facing criminal charges.
“Access to justice for all is a righteous cause,” Hecht said in his first State of the Judiciary address after 26 years on the Supreme Court.
Hecht, named chief justice in October 2013, received his loudest applause when he asked lawmakers to fund the Supreme Court’s $4 million request for legal aid to veterans, saying returning soldiers often need legal help when federal benefits are denied or delayed. Others find jobs to be scarce, homes in foreclosure and debt collectors hounding when they return home, he said.
The chief justice also pushed for more veterans courts, which offer counseling and other programs “when rehabilitation is better than punishment.”
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