{{Short description|American judge (1913–2017)}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Jack Pope in home library, 2011 (cropped).jpg | caption = Retired Texas Chief Justice Jack Pope, aged 97, in his home library, March 2011 | order = | office = Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas | term_start = November 29, 1982 | term_end = January 4, 1985 | predecessor = Joe R. Greenhill | successor = John Hill | order2 = | office2 = Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas | term_start2 = January 4, 1965 | term_end2 = November 29, 1982 | predecessor2 = Frank P. Culver Jr. | successor2 = Ted Z. Robertson | order3 = | office3 = 4th Court of Civil Appeals, Justice | term_start3 = September 12, 1951 | term_end3 = 1964 | order4 = | office4 = 94th District Court, District Judge | term_start4 = December 16, 1946 | term_end4 = 1951 | party = Democratic | birth_name = Andrew Jackson Pope Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|4|18}} | birth_place = Abilene, Texas, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2017|2|25|1913|4|18}} | death_place = Austin, Texas, U.S. | resting_place = Texas State Cemetery | spouse = {{marriage|Allene Nichols|1938|2004|end=died}} | children = 2 | alma_mater = Abilene Christian University (BA)<br>University of Texas at Austin (LLB) | profession = Lawyer | allegiance = {{flag|United States}} | branch = {{flag|United States Navy|23px}} <br/> United States Naval Reserve | service_years = 1944–1946 | battles = World War II }}
'''Andrew Jackson Pope Jr.''', known as '''Jack Pope''' (April 18, 1913 – February 25, 2017), was an American judge, attorney, author and legal scholar who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.
Pope previously held the record for the longest sitting justice in Texas Supreme Court history before current Chief Justice Nathan Hecht surpassed him. Altogether, Pope served on the bench for 38 years, including the District Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court.<ref name= "Lawbook" /> At the time of his 100th birthday, he was the oldest living former Chief Justice of any supreme court in the United States, as well as the longest living chief justice of any supreme court of any state in United States history.<ref name= "Lawbook" >{{cite web |url= http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/pdf/Jackpope100Reprint.pdf |title= Chief Justice Pope Turns 100 |date= April 18, 2013 |work= The Texas Lawbook |publisher= The Supreme Court of Texas |accessdate= May 14, 2013 |archive-date= June 15, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130615010120/http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/pdf/Jackpope100Reprint.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref>
== Early life == Pope was born in Abilene, Texas<ref name= "HouseRes"/> to Dr. Andrew Jackson Pope Sr., a physician, and Ruth Adelia Taylor, a native of Nebraska.<ref name="UTBio">{{cite web |url= http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/just/justices/14.html |title= Pope, Andrew J. |year= 2006 |publisher= The University of Texas at Austin |accessdate= July 2, 2013 |archive-date= September 27, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130927105513/http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/just/justices/14.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> He is a descendant of Andrew Jackson Berry, who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution.<ref name= "AltoHerald"/> After completing high school in Abilene in 1930,<ref name= "HouseRes" /> he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree<ref name= "HouseRes"/> from Abilene Christian College (now Abilene Christian University)<ref name= "HouseRes" /> in 1934, where he had served as Students' Association President.<ref name="ACU Today"/> Pope then served as a student editor of the ''Texas Law Review'' at the University of Texas School of Law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree and in 1937 was licensed by the bar.<ref name= "HouseRes" /> In 1938, he married Allene Nichols, an elementary school teacher and graduate of the University of Texas whom he met while attending law school;<ref name="UTBio"/> the couple had two sons.<ref name="AlleneObit">{{cite web |url= http://www.christianchronicle.org/article1850458~Obituary%3A_Allene_Nichols_Pope |title= Obituary: Allene Nichols Pope |date= May 2004 |publisher= Christian Chronicle |accessdate= July 1, 2013 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Early legal career === After obtaining his license to practice law in Texas in 1937,<ref name= "HouseRes"/> Pope "joined his uncle, former state representative Walter E. Pope,"<ref name= "HouseRes"/> at his law firm in Corpus Christi.<ref name= "HouseRes"/> His practice consisted of both civil and criminal matters,<ref name= "HouseRes"/> such as creditors' rights, oil and gas, personal injury, and family law.<ref name="UTBio"/>
He went on to manage his uncle's business, the Highway Transportation Company, a passenger "bus line which operated between Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio."<ref name="AltoHerald"/> During this time, he was engaged in the legal interpretation of the new transportation regulatory laws, as well as New Deal labor laws.<ref name= "HouseRes" >{{Cite FTP |url= ftp://ftp.legis.state.tx.us/bills/83R/billtext/html/house_resolutions/HR00800_HR00899/HR00891I.htm |title= House Resolution No. 891 |year= 2013 |location= Austin, Texas |server= Texas House of Representatives |accessdate= May 14, 2013}}</ref>
When the United States entered World War II, Pope joined the Naval Reserve in 1944.<ref name= "HouseRes" /> He served on the legal staff of the Naval Air Training Station in Corpus Christi, as well as on stations in Washington, D.C. and San Diego,<ref name="UTBio"/> until his discharge in 1946.<ref name= "HouseRes" />
=== Judge and legal scholar ===
==== District Judge ==== In late 1946 Pope was appointed by Democratic Governor Coke R. Stevenson to fill the unexpired term of Judge Allen Wood of the 94th District Court.<ref name="AltoHerald">{{cite web |url= https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth215807/m1/3/?q=jack | title= Judge Jack Pope Announces for Supreme Court |date=December 1963 |publisher= The Alto Herald|location= Alto, Texas |accessdate= July 1, 2013}}</ref> Governor Stevenson's successor, Beauford H. Jester, then appointed Pope to Judge Wood's four-year term, which began January 1, 1947.<ref name="UTBio"/>
He became Texas' youngest district judge at the time when he sat on the bench at 33 years of age.<ref name= "HouseRes" /> During his time on the district court bench, Pope began writing for and lecturing at legal institutes and before bar associations across South Texas. His concerns included legal ethics, trial administration, best practices for presenting and excluding evidence, and the Texas jury system. On several occasions he was appointed to other regional courts to assist when another judge was recused from presiding.<ref name="UTBio"/>
==== Court of Appeals Justice ==== In 1950 the Nueces County Bar Association prepared a resolution urging him to campaign for the 4th Court of Civil Appeals in San Antonio.<ref name="UTBio"/> Since 1892, of the fifteen judges who had served on that court, all but five had come from San Antonio.<ref name="UTBio"/> The legal community of Nueces County and the Rio Grande Valley counties hoped to change that trend by nominating and actively campaigning for the young judge.,<ref name="UTBio"/><ref name="ACU Today"/> After winning the primary in July, Pope was appointed to the 4th Court of Appeals' bench by Governor Allan Shivers to replace Justice Lorenz Broeter, who had resigned.<ref name="UTBio"/> Pope sat on the court until 1950, whereupon he began serving his own six-year term, with voters subsequently re-electing him to an additional two terms, for a total of 14 years.,<ref name="UTBio"/><ref name=AltoHerald/> In 1961 Pope's judicial review of water rights derived from Spanish and Mexican land grants <ref name= "Lawbook" /> in the case ''State v. Valmont Plantations'' set a legal precedent which would thereafter set the standard for the adjudication of Texas water law.<ref name= "HouseRes" /><ref name="UTBio"/><ref name="Water Law">{{cite web |url= https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/gyw01 | author=Otis W. Templer | title= Water Law |publisher= Texas State Historical Association |accessdate= July 2, 2013}}</ref>
==== Supreme Court Justice ==== In December 1963, Pope declared his intention to run for a vacancy position on the Texas Supreme Court, after receiving 80 petitions from 55 Texas counties with over 2,000 signatures of attorneys pledging their support,<ref name=AltoHerald/> and in 1964 he was elected an associate justice.<ref name= "HouseRes" /> During his tenure as an associate justice, he spearheaded an initiative with the State Bar of Texas to institute a program for continuing statewide judicial education, and to develop judicial ethics rules. His efforts resulted in both compulsory continuing judicial education and the Court's adoption of The Texas Code of Judicial Conduct in 1974.<ref name= "Ethicist" >{{cite web |url= http://www.legalethicstexas.com/Spotlight-on-Ethics/The-Ethicists/Justice-Jack-Pope.aspx |title= Chief Justice Jack Pope |year= 2013 |publisher= Texas Center for Legal Ethics |accessdate= May 14, 2013 |archive-date= March 3, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222722/http://www.legalethicstexas.com/Spotlight-on-Ethics/The-Ethicists/Justice-Jack-Pope.aspx |url-status= dead }}</ref> He was also directly involved in the creation of the Texas State Law Library in 1971, and served on the Friends of the State Law Library Board of Directors.<ref name= "HouseRes" />
==== Supreme Court Chief Justice ==== When Joe R. Greenhill resigned as chief justice in October 1982, Governor William P. Clements appointed Pope to succeed Greenhill.<ref name="RioGrande Herald">{{cite web |url= https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth194903/m1/11/?q=jack |title= Pope Sworn In |date=23 December 1982 |publisher= The Rio Grande Herald |location= Rio Grande City, Texas | accessdate= July 1, 2013}}</ref> As a Republican, Clements had crossed party lines to appoint Pope, a lifelong Democrat.<ref name="Optimist2">{{cite web |url= https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth96041 |title= Senate Announces Delay in Confirming Justice Pope |date=28 January 1983 |publisher= The Optimist |location= Abilene, Texas | accessdate= July 2, 2013}}</ref> However, when Democrat Mark White was elected governor that November, a group of 14 Democratic legislators in the Texas Senate publicly stated that they would "bust"<ref name="Optimist2"/> all lame-duck appointments by the outgoing Republican governor<ref name="RioGrande Herald"/> regardless of qualifications.<ref name="Optimist2"/><ref name="Optimist">{{cite web |url= https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth96043/m1/11/?q= |title= Jack Pope confirmed Chief Justice |date=4 February 1983 |publisher= The Optimist |location= Abilene, Texas | accessdate= July 2, 2013}}</ref> The Democratic senators attempted to negotiate terms to keep true to their statement of blocking all of the Republican's appointments, while also preserving the power of the Chief Justice position for the Democratic party.<ref name= "Own Man"/> However, Pope refused to promise a retirement or interim-only judgeship, saying: "The citizens of Texas do not want their Chief Justice, or any judge, to make a deal to get a job. If he'll make a deal to get a job, he may keep on making deals to keep that job."<ref name= "Own Man"/> At a news conference in early 1983, Governor White stated that he did not oppose Pope's confirmation; and in February the Senate voted 29–2 in approval.<ref name="Optimist2"/><ref name="Optimist"/>
After federal cuts to legal-assistance financing in the early 1980s, as Chief Justice he advocated a way for Texas to guarantee income to finance legal assistance for the poor by using pooled trust-account interest. This program, known as Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA), is now used in every U.S. state.<ref name="LegalAid">{{cite web |url= http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/pdf/Governorsignslegalaidsupport.pdf |title= House Bill 1445, Raising Attorney General's Contributions to Civil Legal Services, Signed by Governor Perry |date=May 2013 |publisher= Texas Supreme Court |location= Austin, Texas |accessdate= May 14, 2013}}</ref>
== Later life and death ==
Upon his 1985 retirement Pope had written over 700 opinions for the Supreme Court,<ref name="Own Man">{{cite web |url= https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/news/hecht2.pdf |title= Supreme Court of Texas Chief Justice Andrew Jackson "Jack" Pope, Jr.: "Always His Own Man" |author= Hecht, Nathan |author-link= Nathan Hecht |date=October 2012 |work= The Storied Third Branch |publisher= Center of Judicial Studies |location= Duke University School of Law |accessdate= May 14, 2013}}</ref> with an additional 500 opinions as a district judge and court of appeals justice.<ref name="AltoHerald"/> Although he had served as a judge for over 38 years, 21 of those years on the Texas Supreme Court, nearing the Court's mandatory retirement age in 1985 Chief Justice Pope wryly commented: "Just about the time I was getting the hang of being a judge, I had to retire."<ref name="UTBio"/><ref name="ACU Today">{{cite web |url= http://blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/2010/10/05/jack-pope-honored-by-texas-bar-association/ |title= Jack Pope honored for lifetime achievements |year= 2010 |work= blogs.acu.edu |publisher= Abilene Christian University |accessdate= July 1, 2013 |archive-date= November 18, 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141118130608/http://blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/2010/10/05/jack-pope-honored-by-texas-bar-association/ |url-status= dead }}</ref>
In 1989 Abilene Christian University established the Jack Pope Fellows Program "to offer scholarships to ACU students pursuing public service careers."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.acuoptimist.com/2010/09/hailey-honored-with-endowment-fund/ |title= Hailey honored with endowment fund |author= Williamson, Kelsi |date= September 7, 2010 |work= The Optimist |publisher= Abilene Christian University |access-date= May 14, 2013 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151121054435/http://www.acuoptimist.com/2010/09/hailey-honored-with-endowment-fund/ |archive-date= November 21, 2015 }}</ref> The interdisciplinary program gives students with "good minds and character" public service educational opportunities in and out of the classroom.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.acu.edu/academics/cas/politicalscience/jackpopefellows/index.html |title= Jack Pope Fellows Program |year= 2013 |work= acu.edu |publisher= Abilene Christian University |accessdate= May 14, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130403091226/http://www.acu.edu/academics/cas/politicalscience/jackpopefellows/index.html |archive-date= April 3, 2013 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Also in 1989, Pope co-founded the non-profit Texas Center for Legal Ethics with other former Chief Justices Joe R. Greenhill and Robert W. Calvert.<ref name=TCLE>{{cite web |url= http://www.legalethicstexas.com/spotlight-on-ethics/awards/pope-award.aspx |title= Chief Justice Jack Pope Professionalism Award |year= 2013 |publisher= Texas Center for Legal Ethics |accessdate= May 14, 2013 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Its mission is to promote the values contained in the Texas Lawyers’ Creed of Professionalism.<ref name="About Us">{{cite web |url= https://www.legalethicstexas.com/About-Us.aspx |title= About Us |publisher= Texas Center for Legal Ethics |accessdate= July 1, 2013}}</ref>
In 2011, at age ninety-eight, he wrote a memoir called ''My Little United Nations: A Team Approach to Growing Older and Wiser and Having Fun Along the Way''— an account of staying physically and emotionally healthy, despite increasing age and the death of his wife in 2004, with the help of a diverse team of caregivers from around the world.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.texascourthistory.org/documents/TSCHS_JournalWinter2011.pdf |title= Judge Jack Pope Pens Book |date= Winter 2011 |work= Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society |page= 23 |accessdate= May 14, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130124072220/http://www.texascourthistory.org/documents/TSCHS_JournalWinter2011.pdf |archive-date= January 24, 2013 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
On May 28, 2013,<ref name="Access to Justice">{{cite web |url= http://www.teajf.org/news/releases/2013Session.aspxGovernor |title= Texas Legislature Provides Funding for the State's Legal Aid System "Chief Justice Jack Pope Act" to Increase Funds for Civil Legal Aid |date= 28 May 2013 |publisher= Texas Access to Justice Foundation |accessdate= July 1, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304033554/http://www.teajf.org/news/releases/2013Session.aspxGovernor |archive-date= 4 March 2016 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Governor Rick Perry signed into law House Bill 1445, which raised the limit on civil penalties and restitution collected by the Attorney General's Office eligible for supporting legal assistance for the indigent to $50 million per year. The Legislature called the law the Chief Justice Jack Pope Act, in honor of his earlier work championing the IOLTA program which provides legal assistance for the poor. The Act came as a response to shrinking returns under that program.<ref name= "LegalAid" />
Pope died on 25 February 2017 at the age of 103. He was survived by his two sons, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.<ref>[http://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/news/former-chief-justice-jack-pope-1913-2017/ CHIEF JUSTICE JACK POPE, 1913-2017]</ref>
By the time of his retirement in 1985, Pope had written more than a thousand legal opinions. Upon Pope's passing, Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, a Republican, called him "a judicial icon. His hard work, scholarship, common sense, humor, and integrity are legendary. No Texas judge has ever been more committed to serving the rule of law and the cause of justice. He was my mentor, role model, counselor, and most especially my friend. Texas has lost a great, great man."<ref>"Former Texas chief justice dies at 103", ''San Antonio Express-News'', February 26, 2017, p. A2.</ref>
== Awards == In 2009 he received the TCLE's inaugural Chief Justice Jack Pope Professionalism Award, "presented annually to both an appellate judge and an appellate lawyer who 'epitomize the highest level of professionalism and integrity.'"<ref name="TCLE"/> On September 22, 2010, the judicial section of the State Bar of Texas presented him with its inaugural Judicial Lifetime Achievement Award at its Annual Judicial Conference in Corpus Christi.<ref name= "BarAward">{{cite web |url= http://www.judicialsection.com/LifetimeAchievementAward/2010/Chief_Justice_Jack_Pope.pdf |title= First Judicial Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Chief Justice Jack Pope, Jr. |year= 2013 |work= judicialsection.com |publisher= State Bar of Texas |accessdate= May 14, 2013 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> On April 18, 2013<ref name="AustinAmerican"/> Pope was honored with a ceremony<ref name="AustinAmerican"/> recognizing his 100th birthday in the Texas House of Representatives within the Texas State Capitol.<ref name="AustinAmerican"/> The House passed a resolution in his honor and "heard words of praise from four U.S. presidents, as well as the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices."<ref name="AustinAmerican">{{cite web|url= http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-house-honors-ex-justice-pope-100/nXQXP/|title= Texas House honors ex-Justice Pope, 100|date= 18 April 2013|work= statesman.com|author= Chuck Lindell|publisher= The Austin-American Statesman|accessdate= July 1, 2013|archive-date= 28 January 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150128113319/http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-house-honors-ex-justice-pope-100/nXQXP/|url-status= dead}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|30em}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Jack}} Category:1913 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Abilene Christian University alumni Category:American men centenarians Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II Category:Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Texas Category:People from Abilene, Texas Category:Texas Democrats Category:Texas lawyers Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Texas Category:United States Navy reservists Category:University of Texas School of Law alumni Category:Writers from Texas Category:20th-century Texas state court judges Category:20th-century American lawyers