Scott Andrew Brister (born January 8, 1955) is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, who served from November 2003 until September 2009. He was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve the remainder of the term of Justice Craig T. Enoch. He was then elected to a regular six-year term in November 2004. Brister resigned from the court effective September 7, 2009, before the scheduled end of his term on December 31, 2010. He was succeeded on the court by Eva Guzman, the first female

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

to serve on the body. He is now employed as a Partner in the Austin office of the law firm

Hunton Andrews Kurth Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is an American law firm created by the merger of Hunton & Williams LLP and Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP on April 2, 2018. The firm has offices in 20 cities, primarily in the United States. History Hunton & Williams (formerl ...

Background

Brister is a native of

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

. He is a 1977 summa cum laude graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the 1980 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

. In 1989, he was appointed judge of the 234th District Court in

Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas; as of the 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, ...

by Governor

Bill Clements William Perry Clements Jr. (April 13, 1917 – May 29, 2011) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who served two non-consecutive terms as the governor of Texas between 1979 and 1991. His terms bookended the sole t ...

and presided over that court until the end of 2000. He was also local administrative judge for the Harris County civil district courts in 1998–1999. He was elected to the

First Court of Appeals of Texas The Texas Courts of Appeals are part of the Texas judicial system. In Texas, all cases appealed from district and county courts, criminal and civil, go to one of the fourteen intermediate courts of appeals, with one exception: death penalty cases. ...

, in 2000. He served on the First Court for less than two years before Perry appointed him chief justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Texas in 2001. He was elected to that position in 2002 and served the first eleven months of that term before he was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court. He has home schooled all four of his daughters with wife Julie Upton Brister. He has four siblings: Robin Brister, Susan Brister, Michal Adams, and Steven Brister. The Bristers live in

Georgetown, Texas Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin. Founded in 1875 from four existing colleges, the oldest of ...

. Brister, a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, was appointed to chair the Texas Commission on Public School Finance by Governor

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 ...

in 2017.
''Neely v. West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District'' (dissenting from judgment holding Texas school financing plan unconstitutional)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brister, Scott 1954 births Justices of the Texas Supreme Court Duke University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Living people Texas Republicans People from Waco, Texas People from Austin, Texas Texas lawyers Texas state court judges People from Georgetown, Texas