EP. 137: The First Chief Justice (sort of)
Wise About Texas
Ken Wise
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Republic of Texas Congress formed the first state Supreme Court in 1836. However, the Court really didn’t meet in any significant way until 1840 under the leadership of Chief Justice John Hemphill. Being Chief Justice was a little different then. It meant fighting Indians, mastering Spanish law, and even leading an expedition to invade Mexico! Chief Justice John Hemphill did it all. Learn more about one of Texas’ greatest jurists in this episode of Wise About Texas.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas history podcast. |
| 0:12.0 | This is your host, Ken Wise. |
| 0:13.2 | Thank you very much for tuning in today for a little bit of Texas history. |
| 0:17.7 | I wanted to update you a little bit on what's been going on. |
| 0:21.6 | It Wise About Texas, the biggest news is that I completed a master's degree in history. |
| 0:27.9 | Last May, this podcast being released in July 2025, and I probably should have updated you sooner, |
| 0:35.3 | but I want to say thanks to the folks at Sam Houston State University. |
| 0:39.7 | It took me a while. |
| 0:40.6 | Only had time to do one class a semester, so it took me a few years, but I got it. |
| 0:46.3 | And this podcast led directly to that, I think, as I got more involved in the academic side of history. |
| 0:54.0 | I already have a doctorate degree. |
| 0:55.5 | A lot of degrees called a Juris Doctorate, but I'd skip the master's level. |
| 1:01.1 | And so I thought, well, I'll go get a master's in history so I can have that academic training. |
| 1:07.1 | So that's very exciting, not sure what it's going to get me, but certainly some |
| 1:11.5 | evidence that I care a lot about the practice of Texas history. Today, I want to talk a little |
| 1:19.3 | bit about a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Now, the first Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme |
| 1:25.6 | Court was James Collinsworth, but the court |
| 1:29.2 | never met under Chief Justice Collinsworth's leadership. |
| 1:33.9 | Thomas Rusk served as Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and they met a couple of |
| 1:39.2 | times, but nothing regular or of any duration. |
| 1:43.7 | However, the next Chief Justice made a critical impact on Texas and Texas law. |
| 1:49.9 | So today we're going to go back to 1840 and get wise about Texas. |
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