Evan Young
Republican | Texas
Candidate Profile*
Originalist (Conditional)
*Additional information appears below for educational purposes; however, only data received prior to the candidate deadline was considered during Panel Evaluation.
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Evan Young
Party
Republican
Election Year
2022
Election
Primary
Race
Justice, Supreme Court, Place 9
Incumbent
Yes
Links
EDUCATION
Candidate did not provide
WORK & MILITARY
Candidate did not provide
AFFILIATIONS
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Candidate did not provide
Race
ENDORSEMENTS*
*These endorsements were received after the deadline and were not considered in the Panel Evaluations and are for additional educational purposes only.
CONSERVATIVE (3)
Conservative Coalition of Harris County TX
*Texas Home School Coalition
Texas Values Action
OTHER (3)
C Club of Houston
HRBC, Houston's Premier Business Coalition
Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
CONSERVATIVE
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (22)
Bud Kirkendall (2013)
Dan Branch (2014)
Debra Lehrmann (2021)
Don Willett (2017)
Eva Guzman (2016)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (0)
OTHER INFORMATION
Governor Abbott appointed Justice Young to the Texas Supreme Court in November 2021. Source
Quotes from campaign website and social media:
- "I share the philosophy of my mentor, Justice Scalia" (1/12/22 Facebook post). Source
- "In private practice, he used his free time volunteering to advocate for the religious freedoms that our Constitution promises...in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the Washington Post and other media covered his brief on behalf of a group of cake artists from across the country.” Source
- “Evan accepted a detail to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, where he was the Deputy Rule of Law Coordinator. In that position, he worked to assist the Iraqi government in its efforts to strengthen its legal institutions, and especially its courts’ commitment to applying the law fairly and faithfully in every case, regardless of personal connections, religious affiliation, or political positions.” Source
- “I will faithfully apply our Constitution and our laws as they are written, without fear or favor, in every single case.” Source
Justice Young cowrote the opinion for the Texas Supreme Court's unanimous decision in In re Khanoyan (2022). Justice Young refused to stop implementation of a districting map (p. 6), explaining that it was too late for the courts to interfere with the election (p. 3). Notable quotes from this opinion include:
- "Courts must follow the same, exacting standards in all cases" (p. 4).
- "Judicial relief is all too often thought of as the only relief to be had" (p. 14).
- "[T]he People need not await our work. The Constitution is theirs, not ours, and the People may freely adjust its contours whenever they wish" (p. 15).
Excerpts from amicus briefs that Justice Young wrote or cowrote as an attorney:
- Trustees of the New Life In Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg
- "For a governmental authority to intrude into 'strictly ecclesiastical' terrain by mandating the use of generally applicable secular employment or antidiscrimination law for ministers crosses the First Amendment’s boundary line, as this Court has held. But surely it is worse for government officials to directly interpret and apply religious teachings to 'correct' a church’s supposed misunderstanding of who its own ministers are" (p. 8).
- Quoted Acts 18
(p. 11).
- Agreed with "the wisdom of the Framers’ decision to place the interpretation of religious doctrines beyond the civil government’s reach" (p. 14).
- "For a governmental authority to intrude into 'strictly ecclesiastical' terrain by mandating the use of generally applicable secular employment or antidiscrimination law for ministers crosses the First Amendment’s boundary line, as this Court has held. But surely it is worse for government officials to directly interpret and apply religious teachings to 'correct' a church’s supposed misunderstanding of who its own ministers are" (p. 8).
- American Hospital Association v. Becerra
- "[A]gencies have become more conditioned to expect deference [from the courts], which, in amici’s experience, has created an incentive for agencies to interpret statutes and regulatory schemes in a manner that casts aside the fairest textual reading and replaces Congress’s policy judgments with their own" (p. 10).
- "[T]his Court should instruct lower courts to follow Chevron’s often-overlooked command to exhaust all the traditional tools of statutory construction before deeming a statute ambiguous. Rigorously enforcing—indeed, renewing and amplifying—this aspect of Chevron will largely cure the reflexive deference that courts have too often exhibited, restore the judiciary to its proper role in interpreting the regulatory burdens imposed on the public, and prevent agencies from overwriting Congress’s policy judgments with their own" (p. 12).
- "[A]gencies have become more conditioned to expect deference [from the courts], which, in amici’s experience, has created an incentive for agencies to interpret statutes and regulatory schemes in a manner that casts aside the fairest textual reading and replaces Congress’s policy judgments with their own" (p. 10).
- Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission: Argued "that cake artists are indeed practitioners of an expressive art and that they are entitled to the same respect under the First Amendment as artists using any other medium" (45).
Amicus briefs, continued:
- City of Bloomfield v. Felix
- "By ordering the Ten Commandments monument to be pulled down, the Tenth Circuit stigmatizes one of the most prominent examples of Jewish contribution to public life in America" (pp. 9-10).
- The Tenth Circuit court "views religion in public life as a 'taint' to be 'cured, revealing a startling contempt for modern faithful and the convictions of their forebears...But religion does not taint public life—it enhances it. A flourishing American society honors the faiths of its citizens" (p. 14).
- "Outsourcing constitutional analysis to the 'objective observer who is aware of the purpose, context, and history of the symbol' is particularly harmful to religious minorities" (p. 16).
- "If those who asserted merely their offense or anger at an alleged governmental violation was sufficient for unbridled standing to convert the dispute into a judicial matter, the consequence would be to assume for the judiciary an 'amorphous, general supervision of the operations of government,' as Justice Powell warned" (p. 23).
- "By ordering the Ten Commandments monument to be pulled down, the Tenth Circuit stigmatizes one of the most prominent examples of Jewish contribution to public life in America" (pp. 9-10).
- Setser v. United States
- "[T]he proposed surrender of power to the Executive is not compelled by § 3584(a) or any other statute, and is unlikely to have been Congress’s intent. Under the common law, judges have had longstanding sentencing authority, and Congress did not withdraw it" (p. 21).
- "Nothing in the text justifies smuggling in extra-textual and ahistorical assumptions about the allocation of power" (pp. 33-4).
- "Setser and the Government both invoke legislative history, but it—like the text and historical background—favors judicial discretion, not judicial silence" (p. 41).
QUESTIONNAIRE
VALUES
I agree with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which asserts that the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist.
Did not answer
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality that is necessary for our system of limited government.
Did not answer
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
Did not answer
What types of pro bono work have you done?
Did not answer
ABOUT YOU
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
Did not answer
What education or experience qualifies you to hold the office for which you seek election?
Did not answer
Why should the voters choose you?
Did not answer
JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHY
Justices should not interpret the federal and state constitutions as living documents, but should use a textualist and originalist approach to interpretation.
Did not answer
What is the proper use of legislative history in interpreting statutory law?
Did not answer
Which current or past U.S. Supreme Court justice best reflects your judicial philosophy?
Did not answer
How should a court address the balance between public health and individual freedoms in the time of a pandemic?
Did not answer
In light of the case Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include a prohibition on sexual-orientation discrimination, which justice’s opinion most closely aligns with your own opinion?
Did not answer
What role (if any) does a judge have in maintaining the separation of church and state?
Did not answer
Religious liberty is at risk in the United States and deserves the highest level of protection in the law.
Did not answer
When should a judge overturn past court decisions?
Did not answer
How should a judge determine which rights are protected by the Constitution even though they are not specifically mentioned?
Did not answer
What legal principles should a court consider when evaluating parents’ objection to their child obtaining medical procedures or drugs designed to affirm the child’s desired gender?
Did not answer
What principles should guide a court’s analysis of whether your state’s constitution gives terminally ill patients a right to assisted suicide?
Did not answer
Would you describe your judicial philosophy as originalist, living constitutionalist, or something else?
Did not answer
