Meet Joe Pool

What is your background and campaign platform?

I am currently serving Hays County, Texas as its 428th Judicial District Judge. I have been a licensed Texas practicing attorney for over 25 years. I served 5 years as General Counsel for the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation.

Which Texas Supreme Court case do you believe to be the most important? Why?

Today in light of Roe v Wade being overturned the most important Texas Supreme Court Case is a Texas Emergency Abortion Case, Cox v. Texas, which was filed on December 5 2023. The Texas Supreme Court ruled Kate Cox did not qualify for an abortion under the medical exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Kate ultimately had to travel out of state to have the procedure. The Texas Supreme Court with all republican justices for over 20 years decided Kate must carry and birth a trisonomy 18 baby. A trisonomy pregnancy involves a high risk of stillbirths and fetal loss. About 50% of infants diagnosed with trisomy 18 live beyond 1 week of age. Only 5–10% will survive beyond 1 year. Rarely do patients survive to adulthood. This survival requires constant monitoring and substantial medical resources. The severe multiple major malformations these patients develop lead to a very high mortality rate. Causes of death include central apnea, respiratory insufficiency, aspiration, and heart failure due to structural malformations.

What inspired you to pursue a path of studying law?

My father, Texas Congressman-at-large Joe Pool, was a practicing Texas attorney until elected to Congress in 1962. He died in 1968 at Hobby Airport coming back from opening the downtown Los Angeles Post Office. There is a post office in Dallas named after him. Lake Joe Pool was dedicated to his memory. Knowing my father for a brief time and his love of the law, I never thought about pursuing any other career.

Describe an interesting case on which you worked.

"In 2017 I was reading about the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan and noticed that the article said they were in The Islamic Republic Of Afghanistan. I thought that's odd. In 2017 all the different news medias I was exposed to referred to Afghanistan as Afghanistan. I did not know we, the United States, were establishing The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with 100 Billion of our tax dollars each year. When I read the Republic of Afghanistan Constitution I became further alarmed because not only did it declare itself an Islamic Republic but its President Must be Muslim and could have 4 wives. Anyway it struck me that these facts violated the Establishment Clause and Freedom of Religion Clause of the U.S. Constitution. I sued President Trump and others in U.S. District to stop our tax dollars from violating The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Ultimately the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court and dismissed my case stating that the President's power to conduct foreign affairs was controlling over the First Amendment. I still say that the President can conduct foreign policy with an Islamic Republic, just not establish an Islamic Republic. Note: the U.S. increased the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's GDP from $25 Billion a year to $75 Billion/yr and paid $4.5 Billion/yr for its army not counting U.S. assets."

How do you handle making difficult decisions, especially ones with which you do not agree?

If you are human, you will get a fair, impartial and precedential determination in my court under our United States and Texas Constitutions. I will give determinations as fast as possible after consideration of the facts and law presented. Most important of all today, I will never commit judicial activism by taking away important established Constitutional rights and certainly not under political pressure. The only thing difficult about making decisions is checking the constitutions, state and federal, checking the applicable statutes, checking the on points prior decisions and ultimately finding the best decision that complies with the foregoing.