The Oct. 1 letter to the editor from Walter Borges, court-watch director of Texas Citizen Action, attacking the Texas Supreme Court must be revealed for what it is: part of a cleverly conceived and carefully orchestrated master plan by a narrow segment of the trial bar to discredit the court.
As evidenced by Mr. Borges's letter, there are members of the plaintiffs' bar who want to move the Supreme Court back to the highly politicized, extremely activist court of the 1980s. Although such a move is in their interests, it will come only at a heavy cost to the common sense, integrity and fairness of Texas civil justice.

The sitting , in the judgment of most objective and knowledgeable observers, is highly rated for intellectual ability, clarity of reasoning, devotion to traditional, time-honored jurisprudence and collegiality.

During the decade or more in which the Texas Supreme Court was dominated by judges who either hailed from the plaintiffs' bar or were beholden to that bar for their election, Texas tort law deviated widely from its roots as well as from the mainstream of American jurisprudence.

The activist court created new theories of recovery and damages out of whole cloth, wreaking havoc with Texas law, directly undermining the competitiveness of Texas businesses, and indirectly imposing huge costs on Texas consumers. The decisions of the current court that Mr. Borges decries as reflecting "activism"' and a "power grab" are actually nothing more than this court's attempt to reclaim traditional common-law principles for the people of Texas. And for the most part those decisions have been the product of a substantial consensus among the justices.

Mr. Borges is particularly critical of the court's decisions on the appropriate role of juries in trials. He accuses the court of making "an assault on Texas' juries."
Yet an objective analysis of those decisions shows that this court's body of law on the respective roles of judge and jury simply places Texas squarely in the mainstream of Anglo-American jurisprudence.

Mr. Borges represents a small group of Texas lawyers who believe that litigation is the best way to establish public policy and resolve disputes. Fortunately, the current Supreme Court recognizes that the law is a sacred trust and must serve its citizens as shield as well as a sword.