Don Willett
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Don R. Willett is a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He serves as the member of Place 2. His current term will expire on December 31, 2012. Justice Willett is a Republican. Willett's first majority opinion was Willis v. Donnelly, which was released on June 2, 2006. Willett wrote for a unanimous court in a case dealing with shareholder liability in close corporations.[1] Willett is mentioned in David Kuo's book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (2006), which takes a critical view of the Bush Administration and the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Legal education
Willett, a native Texan, received a triple-major BBA from Baylor. Willett and his wife, Tiffany, have two children. Justice Willett received his J.D., along with an M.A. in political science, from Duke in 1992.
Legal experience
After his graduation, Justice Willett clerked for Judge Jerre WIlliams in the Fifth Circuit. In 1996, he joined then-Governor George W. Bush's administration. In 2000, he worked for the Bush Cheney Presidential Campaign, and upon Bush's election, Willett helped create the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and was Director of Law and Policy. Willett was a Deputy Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice in 2002, but he left to join Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office in 2003, where he worked until his appointment to the Texas Supreme Court.[2] In 2005, Willett was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Rick Perry.
Political affiliation
2006 election
The road to a full term on the Texas Supreme Court in 2006 was a difficult one for Willett, as he faced close calls in both the primary and general election. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith sought to regain a seat on the court by triumphing over Willett in the Republican primary. Willett narrowly defeated Smith in the contest on March 7, 2006, garnering 50.5 percent of the vote to Smith's 49.5 percent, a difference of about 5,000 votes. Willett then defeated Democratic Party nominee Bill Moody in the November 7, 2006 general election. Willett won with 2,121,985 votes for 51 percent of the vote versus Moody's 1,873,252 votes for 45 percent.
On the issues
See the Discussion tab for the "On the issues" sections.
References
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The Texas Project on Judgepedia
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