Incumbent
Brett Busby
Incumbent Republican candidate for State Supreme Court in Texas
Incumbent
Texas Supreme Court Place 8 winner?
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NOV 8, 2026
General Election
Voters choose the office holder.
Live Odds — Texas Supreme Court Place 8 winner?
Current prediction-market probability for the candidate, updated as market prices change.
0%chance to win
NOV 8, 2026Candidate Overview
Key details about the candidate’s background, party, office sought and current campaign.
Current roleJudge
PartyRepublican
Political ideologyConservative Republican
Age53 years old (Apr 12, 1973)
GenderMale
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LocationTexas
BackgroundJudge
EducationDuke University — A.B., Public Policy Studies (Public Policy and International Affairs)
Notable personal detailsJ. Brett Busby is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas (Place 8), appointed in 2019 and elected to a full term in 2020. He previously served as a justice on Texas’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston (2012–2018) and worked as an appellate litigator in private practice. He earned an A.B. from Duke University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron R. White and John Paul Stevens and for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
SourcesShowHide
Political Positions
Economy & Taxes
Busby’s campaign site emphasizes access to justice and reforming burdensome regulations that increase the cost of legal services, rather than a detailed tax or economic platform. In a 2024 property-tax dispute, he wrote an opinion that allowed a taxpayer’s challenge to continue, but the available evidence does not show a clear, consistent tax-policy agenda. Overall, the record is mixed and not specific enough to place him clearly on the economy-and-taxes spectrum.
Healthcare
Busby’s documented healthcare-related rulings and writings are deferential to legislative regulation of medical practice. In abortion cases, he joined opinions upholding Texas restrictions and wrote separately to leave room for statutory interpretation issues rather than recognizing a broader constitutional right to obtain the treatment. He also joined a ruling that rejected a parental-rights challenge to a Texas law restricting certain gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.
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Immigration & Border
Busby has supported Texas enforcement authority in immigration-related disputes. In a Supreme Court of Texas opinion, he joined the view that Texas’s alien-harboring statute is not preempted and that the state may pursue action against conduct alleged to help illegal immigrants evade detection, while noting that federal law can still allow state officers to assist federal immigration enforcement when requested.
Abortion & Reproductive Rights
Busby has joined opinions upholding Texas’s abortion restrictions while recognizing only the statutory exception for life-saving abortions and abortions preventing serious physical impairment. In his concurring opinion in Zurawski, he said a more restrictive abortion ban would be unconstitutional, but the current Texas law survives because it allows abortions in life-threatening circumstances under reasonable medical judgment.
Public Safety & Guns
Brett Busby has publicly described his judicial approach as protecting individual rights and applying the Constitution faithfully. In a 2021 Texas Supreme Court concurrence, he noted that a petition involving handgun-license suspension raised a substantial Second Amendment issue and that Texas had recently adopted permitless carry for most adults, but he did not reach the merits of the gun-rights question.
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