Don Willett
Encyclopedia
Don R. Willett is a Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. He was appointed by Governor
Rick Perry
on August 24, 2005 to fill the vacancy created when former Justice Priscilla Owen
joined the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
. Willett was elected on November 7, 2006 to a full, six-year term that ends December 31, 2012.
, having graduated in 1984, and then was his family’s first college graduate.
Willett received a triple-major BBA (economics, finance, public administration) from Baylor University
in 1988. He received his J.D.
with honors, along with an A.M. in political science
, from Duke University
in 1992.
After law school, Willett clerked for Judge Jerre Stockton Williams
at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Willett then practiced employment and labor law in the Austin office of Haynes and Boone, LLP from 1993-1996. During that time, he also served as senior fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation
. Justice Willett has also served as a non-resident fellow with the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) at the University of Pennsylvania
.
In April 1996, he joined then-Governor George W. Bush
's administration as Director of Research and Special Projects, advising on various legal and policy issues. In 2000-2001, Willett worked on the Bush-Cheney Presidential Campaign and Transition Team. In the White House, Willett was Special Assistant to the President and Director of Law and Policy for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (WHOFBCI). He drafted the first two executive orders of the Bush presidency, one creating the WHOFBCI and the other creating related offices in five cabinet agencies. In early 2002, Willett was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he helped coordinate the selection and confirmation of federal judges. He also supervised policy initiatives such as the PROTECT Act of 2003
to combat child abduction and exploitation. Willett also led development of an executive order to expedite U.S. citizenship for immigrant service members fighting the War on Terror.
Willett returned to Texas in early 2003 to become Deputy Texas Attorney General for Legal Counsel in the office of newly elected Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
. As the AG’s chief legal counsel, Willett led the agency’s core legal divisions (opinion committee, open records, general counsel, public finance, intergovernmental relations, and litigation technical support). Besides giving the AG legal advice on various issues, Willett also helped with select litigation, including efforts to protect the Ten Commandments
monument on the Texas Capitol grounds and also the Pledge of Allegiance when it was challenged for including the words “under God.” Willett was serving in this Deputy Attorney General position when he was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in August 2005.
All Court justices have liaison assignments to help improve different aspects of the civil justice system, and Willett is liaison to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, the Task Force to Ensure Judicial Readiness in Times of Emergency, and the Court Reporters Certification Board.
Willett sits on the advisory board for the Honors College at his alma mater
, Baylor University, which named Willett a Distinguished Young Alumnus in 2005. He also served on the national steering committee for Baylor’s proposal to secure the Bush Presidential Library. Willett is on the national advisory board for ConSource (The Constitutional Sources Project), a free, online library of Founding-era source material. For Constitution Day 2008, Willett authored a commentary in the Austin American-Statesman
highlighting ConSource and its nonprofit educational mission to make these historical documents accessible to teachers, students, academics, lawyers and judges. Justice Willett is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, the Austin Bar Foundation, and is a member of the American Law Institute.
Willett is mentioned and quoted in a March 2008 Washington Post column by conservative commentator George F. Will, who favorably discusses a book review Willett wrote in the Fall 2007 issue of the Texas Review of Law and Politics
, on whose advisory board Willett sits. Willett is also mentioned favorably in David Kuo's book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
ISBN 0-7432-8712-6 (2006), which criticizes the Bush administration’s pursuit of the president’s faith-based agenda.
Willett and his wife, Tiffany, married in 2000. She served as Litigation Director for a member of the Texas Senate
, and in D.C. as Education Director for the White House Fellows. When they left the Bush administration in 2003 to return home to Texas, she worked for Texas CASA, which advocates for abused and neglected children in the court system. The Willetts have three children: Jacob, Shane-David (named after his uncle, Shane Mahaffee, who was killed in Iraq in 2006), and Genevieve. As a youth, Willett rode in rodeos (bulls and bareback horses) and was also a professional drummer.
justices on the 2006 ballot, but he was the only who faced opposition; his four colleagues were unopposed in both the March 7 primary and the November 7 general election. In the March primary, Willett narrowly defeated former Justice Steven Wayne Smith
, who sought to regain a seat on the Court that he had lost in the 2004 Republican primary to Justice Paul Green. In the November general election, Willett defeated Democratic Party nominee Bill Moody
by a 51-45 percent (2.12 million votes to Moody’s 1.87 million). Moody garnered considerable media attention during his campaign by walking across Texas, from El Paso
to the Louisiana
border.
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
on August 24, 2005 to fill the vacancy created when former Justice Priscilla Owen
Priscilla Owen
Priscilla Richman Owen is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was previously a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court.-Early life:...
joined the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
. Willett was elected on November 7, 2006 to a full, six-year term that ends December 31, 2012.
Background and personal life
Willett, a native Texan, was raised in Talty, Texas. His father died at the age of forty, when Willett was six, and he and his older sister (Donny and Donna) were reared by their mother, Doris, who waited tables to support the family. Neither of Willett’s parents finished high school. Willett attended public schools in ForneyForney, Texas
Forney is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States and has been named by the Texas legislature as the "Antique Capital of Texas". The population was 5,588 at the 2000 census...
, having graduated in 1984, and then was his family’s first college graduate.
Willett received a triple-major BBA (economics, finance, public administration) from Baylor University
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
in 1988. He received his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
with honors, along with an A.M. in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, from Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
in 1992.
After law school, Willett clerked for Judge Jerre Stockton Williams
Jerre Stockton Williams
Jerre Stockton Williams was a United States federal judge.Born in Denver, Colorado, Williams received an A.B. from the University of Denver in 1938 and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1941. He was an Instructor in law, University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, Iowa from 1941 to 1942...
at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Willett then practiced employment and labor law in the Austin office of Haynes and Boone, LLP from 1993-1996. During that time, he also served as senior fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation
Texas Public Policy Foundation
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is an Independent think tank based in Austin, Texas. It is a member of the State Policy Network, a network of free-market leaning think tanks....
. Justice Willett has also served as a non-resident fellow with the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
In April 1996, he joined then-Governor George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's administration as Director of Research and Special Projects, advising on various legal and policy issues. In 2000-2001, Willett worked on the Bush-Cheney Presidential Campaign and Transition Team. In the White House, Willett was Special Assistant to the President and Director of Law and Policy for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (WHOFBCI). He drafted the first two executive orders of the Bush presidency, one creating the WHOFBCI and the other creating related offices in five cabinet agencies. In early 2002, Willett was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he helped coordinate the selection and confirmation of federal judges. He also supervised policy initiatives such as the PROTECT Act of 2003
PROTECT Act of 2003
The PROTECT Act of 2003 is a United States law with the stated intent of preventing child abuse. "PROTECT" is a "backronym" which stands for "Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today"....
to combat child abduction and exploitation. Willett also led development of an executive order to expedite U.S. citizenship for immigrant service members fighting the War on Terror.
Willett returned to Texas in early 2003 to become Deputy Texas Attorney General for Legal Counsel in the office of newly elected Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott
Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn's election to the U.S. Senate...
. As the AG’s chief legal counsel, Willett led the agency’s core legal divisions (opinion committee, open records, general counsel, public finance, intergovernmental relations, and litigation technical support). Besides giving the AG legal advice on various issues, Willett also helped with select litigation, including efforts to protect the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
monument on the Texas Capitol grounds and also the Pledge of Allegiance when it was challenged for including the words “under God.” Willett was serving in this Deputy Attorney General position when he was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in August 2005.
All Court justices have liaison assignments to help improve different aspects of the civil justice system, and Willett is liaison to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, the Task Force to Ensure Judicial Readiness in Times of Emergency, and the Court Reporters Certification Board.
Willett sits on the advisory board for the Honors College at his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, Baylor University, which named Willett a Distinguished Young Alumnus in 2005. He also served on the national steering committee for Baylor’s proposal to secure the Bush Presidential Library. Willett is on the national advisory board for ConSource (The Constitutional Sources Project), a free, online library of Founding-era source material. For Constitution Day 2008, Willett authored a commentary in the Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region....
highlighting ConSource and its nonprofit educational mission to make these historical documents accessible to teachers, students, academics, lawyers and judges. Justice Willett is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, the Austin Bar Foundation, and is a member of the American Law Institute.
Willett is mentioned and quoted in a March 2008 Washington Post column by conservative commentator George F. Will, who favorably discusses a book review Willett wrote in the Fall 2007 issue of the Texas Review of Law and Politics
Texas Review of Law and Politics
The Texas Review of Law & Politics is a legal publication whose mission is to publish "thoughtful and intellectually rigorous conservative articles--articles that traditional law reviews often fail to publish--that can serve as blueprints for constructive legal reform."Its primary focus is the...
, on whose advisory board Willett sits. Willett is also mentioned favorably in David Kuo's book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction is a controversial book by former Bush White House Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives David Kuo...
ISBN 0-7432-8712-6 (2006), which criticizes the Bush administration’s pursuit of the president’s faith-based agenda.
Willett and his wife, Tiffany, married in 2000. She served as Litigation Director for a member of the Texas Senate
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...
, and in D.C. as Education Director for the White House Fellows. When they left the Bush administration in 2003 to return home to Texas, she worked for Texas CASA, which advocates for abused and neglected children in the court system. The Willetts have three children: Jacob, Shane-David (named after his uncle, Shane Mahaffee, who was killed in Iraq in 2006), and Genevieve. As a youth, Willett rode in rodeos (bulls and bareback horses) and was also a professional drummer.
2006 election
Willett was one of five incumbentIncumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
justices on the 2006 ballot, but he was the only who faced opposition; his four colleagues were unopposed in both the March 7 primary and the November 7 general election. In the March primary, Willett narrowly defeated former Justice Steven Wayne Smith
Steven Wayne Smith
Steven Wayne Smith , is a Republicanformer Texas Supreme Court associate justice, who was defeated for renomination in 2004 through the active opposition of Governor Rick Perry. He was unseated by Paul W. Green. Smith again lost – very narrowly – a bid for nomination to the court in the March 7,...
, who sought to regain a seat on the Court that he had lost in the 2004 Republican primary to Justice Paul Green. In the November general election, Willett defeated Democratic Party nominee Bill Moody
Bill Moody
Judge William E. "Bill" Moody has served as the presiding judge of the 34th District Court in El Paso since 1986.For the Professional wrestling manager William Alvin "Bill" Moody, see Paul Bearer.-2010 Election:...
by a 51-45 percent (2.12 million votes to Moody’s 1.87 million). Moody garnered considerable media attention during his campaign by walking across Texas, from El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
to the Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
border.
Court decisions
Willett has authored several notable decisions since joining the Court in 2005. All justices’ opinions can found on the Court’s official website, and some private websites also gather the justices’ individual writings, provide brief summaries of them, and include links.Awards
Justice Willett was named Outstanding Young Alumnus of Baylor University in 2005 and inducted into the Forney High School Hall of Honor in 2007. He has received the Faith and Integrity in Legal Services Award and the Austin Under 40 Award for Government and Public Affairs.External links
- Remarks of Governor Perry on the appointment of Justice Willett
- Statement of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on the appointment of Justice Willett
- Administration of the Oath of Office at Justice Willett’s Formal Investiture (November 21, 2005)
- Texas Bar Journal Article on Justice Willett’s Investiture
- Reprint from Texas Politics blog, Oct. 24, 2006
- Text of Executive Order 13199 (Jan. 29, 2001) Regarding the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
- Text of Executive Order 13198 (Jan. 29, 2001) Regarding “Agency Responsibilities With Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
- Text of Executive Order 13269 (July 3, 2002) Regarding “Expedited Naturalization of Aliens and Noncitizen Nationals Serving in an Active-Duty Status During the War on Terrorism”
- Justice Willett's profile at the Texas Supreme Court
- Justice Willett's Official Campaign Website
- Justice Willett’s op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman on Constitution Day 2008
- Website for Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism
- Website for ConSource (The Constitutional Sources Project)
- Website for Texas Review of Law & Politics
- Justice Willett’s book review in the Texas Review of Law & Politics
- Website for Baylor Alumni Association article listing Outstanding Young Alumni for 2005
- Website for Texas CASA
- Website with links to some of Justice Willett’s opinions