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Rebeca Huddle | |
---|---|
Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas | |
Assumed office October 30, 2020 | |
Appointed by | Greg Abbott |
Preceded by | Paul W. Green |
Personal details | |
Born | Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle July 7, 1973 El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Education | Stanford University (BA) University of Texas at Austin (JD) |
Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle[1] (born July 7, 1973)[2] is an American lawyer who has served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas since 2020. She previously served as a justice of the First Court of Appeals of Texas from 2011 to 2017.[3]
On October 15, 2020, Governor Greg Abbott nominated Huddle to the Texas Supreme Court to replace Justice Paul W. Green, who retired from the court in August.[3][4] Huddle was sworn into office on October 30, 2020.[5][6]
Huddle was born in El Paso, Texas and attended Austin High School in El Paso.[7][8] She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Stanford University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law.[3]
After graduating law school, Huddle became a partner in Baker Botts LLP's trial department, focusing on civil litigation. She worked in that position until her appointment to the First Court of Appeals in Houston.[8][9]
Once Huddle left the Court of Appeals, she returned to Baker Botts and became the partner-in-charge of their Houston office, focusing on commercial litigation and appeals.[10][11] She left that position once she was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court.
In 2011, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed Huddle to the nine-member First Court of Appeals, replacing Elsa Alcala, who had been elevated to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.[7][12] The First and Fourteenth Court of Appeals, both based in Houston's 1910 Harris County Courthouse, divide the caseload of appeals from Harris County and nine surrounding counties.[13] They hear both civil and criminal matters and each issue about 700 decisions per year.[14] The term of the justice Huddle replaced expired at the end of 2012, so she chose to stand for election in November 2012 to a new six-year term. She won her election with 53.4% of the vote.[15] Huddle left the court in June 2017 (before her term would have expired in 2018) and returned to private practice at Baker Botts.[7][10]
Huddle is a member of the State Bar of Texas, Houston Bar Association, and the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston.[7]