Gomez II

A group of South Texas farm workers filed a class action lawsuit on August 23, 1999, in Federal District Court in Brownsville against the Supreme Court of Texas. The case is a follow-up to a 1991 suit, Gomez v. State Bar of Texas (hereafter, Gomez I), which alleged that the State Bar of Texas violated various provisions of the Texas Constitution and state law by not providing adequate pro bono legal services to indigent Texans. In 1994, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiffs, holding that only it had jurisdiction to hear the matter, and placed Gomez I on its administrative docket. The Court gave all interested parties until April 14, 1995 to file written arguments on the merits of the case. The new case, Gomez, et at v. Phillips, et al (hereafter, Gomez II), includes two of the plaintiffs from Gomez I and complains that, although numerous briefs were submitted by the deadline and subsequent letters seeking hearings were sent to the justices, the Supreme Court has never held hearings on the matter. The plaintiffs' allege in Gomez II that the Court's failure to hold hearings has violated their right to due process of law. Plaintiffs further allege that the "inaction of Defendants, the Texas Supreme Court and its justices, on the issue of a pro bono program in Texas has caused the legal needs of indigent Texans to become even more acute than when Gomez [I] was filed." Plaintiffs in Gomez II seek a declaratory judgment that the Supreme Court is violating their due process rights and that it should hold the hearings on the pro bono issue. Plaintiffs are represented by Austin attorney James C. Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. However, Harrington is representing plaintiffs pro bono and not as part of his work with TCRP.