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Houston Lawyers Rate Owen the Worst

Members of the Houston Bar Association who have practiced before Priscilla Owen have rated her the worst justice of the six justices rated. Here are the rankings:

Judge (Respondents) Outstanding Acceptable Poor

Scott A. Brister (422) 36.9 20.7 42.4
Nathan L. Hecht (327) 40.3 17.4 42.3
Wallace B. Jefferson (270) 53.4 29.7 16.9
Harriet O'Neill (334) 55 30.5 14.5
Priscilla R. Owen (350) 39.5 15.2 45.3
Dale Wainwright (316) 48.7 25.7 25.7

Using "Outstanding" percentage minus "Poor" percentage, Owen is at minus 5.8%, i.e. 5.8% more rated her performance "Poor" than rated her "Outstanding." Owen's rating is a hair worse than Brister (-.5%); a little worse than Hecht (-2%); and much worse than O'Neill (+40.5%), Jefferson (+36.5%), and Wainwright (+23%).

Alternatively, if you assign 2 points for an "Outstanding" rating, 1 point for an "Acceptable" rating, and 0 points for a "Poor" rating, the average scores of each justice are: O'Neill 1.405, Jefferson .365, Wainwright 1.231, Hecht .980, Brister .945, Owen .942.

Owen does particularly badly on the criterion "Is impartial and open-minded with respect to determining the legal issues." There her ratings are:

Outstanding 34.6%
Acceptable 16.6%
Poor 48.8%

Just under half of the respondents rate Owen's impartiality and open-mindedness as "poor." One can certainly see why Bush has renominated this previously rejected candidate, and why Frist is willing to detonate the nuclear option to put her on the federal bench. [hat tip to Fred]

Update: Ted Barlow writes, "In her defense, the poll apparently asked nothing about Sunday School teaching." From Byron at Burnt Orange Report asks, "Are these ratings from a non-partisan organization of lawyers who have worked directly with Justice Owen reflective of someone who deserves a promotion? I don't think so..."

Memeorandum is tracking blog coverage of the survey.

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