Education
Michigan State University. University of Texas at Austin.
Michigan State University. University of Texas at Austin.
He sits on the council of the American Law Institute and became its treasurer, in May 2014. He is an graduate of John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, the James Madison College at Michigan State University and the University of Texas School of Law. In 2001, then Texas governor Rick Perry appointed him to become the first African American justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and then again, in 2004, he was appointed the first African American chief justice.
In November 2002, Jefferson also became, with Dale Wainwright, the first two African Americans elected to the court.
Jefferson was first appointed to the court on April 18, 2001, to fill the vacancy left by Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned to become White House counsel to United States. president George West. Bush. Jefferson was then elected to that seat, in 200,2 with 56 percent of the vote.
Before Jefferson could complete his new term, however, he was again promoted by Perry. On September 20, 2004, Perry appointed Jefferson as the successor to chief justice Thomas R. Phillips, who had resigned from the court a few weeks earlier, after nearly seventeen years as chief justice.
Jefferson was elected in November 2006, to serve out the remainder of Phillips"s unexpired term as chief justice in November 2006.
Perry named long-term associate justice Nathan Hecht of Dallas as Jefferson"s successor as chief justice. Jefferson was elected to the American Law Institute (the ALI) in 2001 and was elected to the ALI council, in 2011. In May 2014, he was named treasurer of ALI. He also serves as an adviser on the Restatement Third, the law of consumer contracts.
He also chairs the ALI"s regional advisory group, covering Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
During his time on the bench, Jefferson served as president of the Conference of Chief Justices, an association of chief justices from the fifty states and United States. territories. In 2015, governor Greg Abbott appointed Jefferson to the Texas Historical Commission.
Before the bench, Jefferson successfully argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court. Board of Commissioners of Bryan County, Oklahoma v.
Brown, 520 United States. 397 (1997), and Gebser v.
Lago Vista Independent School District, 524 United States. 274 (1998).
A member of the Republican Party, he was formerly, the first African American justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
