Name John Devine | ||
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John Phillip Devine (born 1958 in Indiana) is the Place 4 justice of the nine-member Texas Supreme Court. A Republican, Devine defeated incumbent David Medina in the runoff election held on July 31, 2012. Devine then ran without a Democratic Party opponent in the general election held on November 6, 2012. His term began on January 1, 2013.
Devine graduated in 1980 with a degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He then worked for Shell Oil in Houston, Texas, and studied there at the South Texas College of Law, from which in 1986 he obtained his Juris Doctor degree. He worked thereafter for Brown and Root.
Before being elected to the state Supreme Court, Devine was the district judge for the 190th Judicial District Court of Harris County from 1995 through 2002. He was unopposed for the judgeship in the 1994 Republican primary and then in the general election narrowly unseated the Democrat incumbent, Eileen F. O'Neill, 289,943 (50.5 percent) to 284,246 (49.5 percent). He was reelected to a second term on the district court in 1998, with 261,514votes (52.8 percent) to the Democrat Jane Fraser, who polled 233,597 (47.2 percent). Devine did not seek a third term in 2002 and was succeeded on the district court by fellow Republican Jennifer F. Elrod.
From 2003 to 2011, he was a special judge to the Harris County Justice of the Peace courts. He also served on the Harris County Juvenile Board, Harris County Juvenile Justice School Board, Board of Civil District Judges, Texas Association of State Judges, and American Judges Association.
In 2004, Devine was sued for his refusal to take down a painting of the The Ten Commandments in his Harris County courtroom. The case was dismissed, and the painting remained in the courtroom.
He is married to Nubia Piedad Gomez, formerly of Venezuela. They had seven children, four boys and three girls. Their youngest daughter died shortly after birth.
A native of Texas, Samuel Cavazos, filed a complaint against Devine on the grounds of discrimination of political viewpoint on a Facebook page designated as a public forum on March 2016. The complaint is pending with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct in Austin. The case number is 16-0598.