Education
She was reared in Houston, where she graduated there in 1979 from the predominantly Hispanic Stephen F. Austin High School.
She was reared in Houston, where she graduated there in 1979 from the predominantly Hispanic Stephen F. Austin High School.
She was appointed to Place 9 on the court by Governor Rick Perry in the fall of 2009 to fill the seat vacated by Justice Scott Brister, who resigned with more than a year left in his term. Guzman is one of seven children of Mexican immigrant parents. A resident of Cypress in Harris County, she is the first Hispanic woman to serve on the high court.
Another Hispanic, David Medina, was elected to the court in 2006.
Guzman was recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association as "Latina Judge of the Year" and as "2009 Judge of the Year" by the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas Foundation. At the time of the appointment, Perry called Guzman a "principled conservative with an "unmatched work ethic."
All nine Supreme Court justices are Republican.
She defeated Judge Rose Vela of the 13th Court of Appeals, 721,456 (653 percent) to 384,135 (347 percent). In the November 2 general election, Guzman defeated Democrat Blake H. Bailey.
Prior to her high court appointment, Guzman was an associate justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, where she ruled on thousands of civil and criminal appeals wrote hundreds of published opinions.
She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center. As of 2009, she had served for more than a decade as the first Hispanic female appointed and then elected to both the Harris County Family Court and the 14th Court of Appeals. Guzman has also been named "Appellate Judge of the Year" by the Houston Police Officers Union.
She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and a law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston.
In the Republican primary on March 1, 2016, Judge Guzman gained re-nomination to a second six-year term by defeating Joe Pool, the son of a former United States. representative. She received 1,269,231 votes (592 percent) to Pool"s 874,128 (408 percent).
In the November 8 general election, Guzman will face Savannah Robinson, who polled 989,444 votes running unopposed in the Democratic judicial primary.