The American Lawyers Alliance, or ALA, has named Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby the 2022 recipient of its Judicial Civic Education Award. The ALA is an American Bar Association affiliate that supports law-related education, and the Judicial Civic Education Award honors judges for their work promoting civic education in their communities or states.
Busby, known for his contributions to access-to-justice initiatives, helped found the Teach Texas program, a judicial civics and court history project that teaches seventh graders about the judicial system. Teach Texas, a partnership between the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society and the Houston Bar Association, uses lesson plans based on the Taming Texas book series. Taming Texas was sponsored by the historical society and created with the help of the State Bar of Texas Law-Related Education Department. Tamingtexas.org provides access to the books Taming Texas: How Law and Order Came to the Lone Star State, Taming Texas: Law and the Texas Frontier, Taming Texas: The Chief Justices of Texas, and associated curriculum guides.
Busby is a seventh generation Texan, a third generation Eagle Scout, and a lifelong violinist who grew up in Amarillo and Austin. After graduating with high honors from Duke University and Columbia Law School, he served as a law clerk to Justices Byron R. White and John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
In private practice, Busby represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Supreme Court, and federal and state appellate courts. He was a partner in Bracewell in Houston and served on the Texas 14th Court of Appeals for six years before joining the Texas Supreme Court. Busby was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in 2019 by Gov. Greg Abbott and was confirmed unanimously by the Texas Senate in 2020.
For more information on the Taming Texas program and book series, go to tamingtexas.org.