How do judges of the Supreme Court of Texas reach the bench?

The court's current selection method is partisan election.

Supreme Court of Texas / Joined 2013 / Active

John Phillip Devine

Justice, Supreme Court of Texas

John Phillip Devine is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, serving since 2013. He previously served on the Texas 190th Judicial District Court. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1958 · age 68
Tenure: Since 2013 · 13 yrs

Judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	Texas 190th Judicial District Court	–	–
1999	Texas 190th Judicial District Court	–	–
2013	Supreme Court of Texas	–	–
2019	Supreme Court of Texas	–	–

Education

Ball State University		1980
South Texas College		1986

Judicial Record

In our data, Devine authored 51 published opinions for the court (2013–2026), plus 6 dissents and 2 concurrences. Most cited: In re Lipsky (894 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge. 52 of these were attributed to Devine by a unique court-, date-, and surname-match against our roster (marked ), because CourtListener recorded no author for them. Each links to the official text to verify. How we match.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2015	In re Lipsky†	460 S.W.3d 579	894
2016	in Re Nationwide Insurance Company of America†	494 S.W.3d 708	257
2017	Wallace L. Hall, Jr., in His Official Capacity as a Regent for the University of Texas System v. William H. McRaven, in His Official Capacity as Chancellor for the University of Texas System†	508 S.W.3d 232	193
2016	Michael Quinn Sullivan v. Salem Abraham†	488 S.W.3d 294	155
2014	the City of Watauga v. Russell Gordon†	434 S.W.3d 586	155
2015	in Re State of Texas· Dissent†	466 S.W.3d 783	142
2014	in the Interest of S.M.R., G.J.R. and C.N.R., Children†	434 S.W.3d 576	142
2017	Wade Brady v. Leaanne Klentzman and Carter Publications, Inc. D/B/A the West Fort Bend Star, Inc.†	515 S.W.3d 878	120
2015	Charles G. Hooks, III v. Samson Lone Star, Limited Partnership, N/K/A Samson Lone Star Llc†	457 S.W.3d 52	119
2018	Rsl Funding, LLC and Rsl Special-Iv Limited Partnership v. Rickey Newsome†	569 S.W.3d 116	109
2018	Honors Acad., Inc. v. Tex. Educ. Agency†	555 S.W.3d 54	103
2014	Venture Cotton Cooperative and Noble Americas Corp. v. Shelby Alan Freeman†	435 S.W.3d 222	97
2019	Scripps Np Operating, LLC, a Wisconsin Limited Liability Company, Successor in Interest to Scripps Texas Newspapers, Lp D/B/A Corpus Christi Caller-Times v. Terry Carter†	573 S.W.3d 781	92
2016	Harris County Flood Control District v. Kerr· Dissent†	499 S.W.3d 793	89
2016	Matthews ex rel. M.M. v. Kountze Independent School District†	484 S.W.3d 416	80

Showing the 15 most-cited of 59 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

How do judges of the Supreme Court of Texas reach the bench?: The court's current selection method is partisan election.
Which court is John Phillip Devine on?: John Phillip Devine is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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13 years on the Supreme Court of Texas. Data as of 2026-03-31. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).