Blogger Charles Kuffner informs the Texan public of an old rule that was quietly nullified from Texan law in this Off the Kuff blog. The law was concerning a certain requirement to file for candidacy for all statewide judicial practices, where you once previously needed to gather a bunch of signatures on a petition for you to run. The law was somewhat controversially removed from law by adding in the last few lines of text in HB 3118 by saying that law SB 1073 will no longer be in effect, without stating what the law actually does. SB 1073 was made in order to prevent unqualified people from running, but as I thought and as written in the blog, it really just arbitrarily prevents potential good candidates who otherwise would have fit very well in office, but don't feel like or have a plan to gather signatures. Any skilled liar or schmoozer and even fools can gather a bunch of signatures, it's not necessarily evidence of competence as a state official by any means. I'm not sure whether the author's take on it is positive or negative, but I am assuming he thinks its positive as he quotes a judge who had very similar thoughts to it that I did, and I'm assuming the author also shares this same sentiment. Regardless, I'm in agreement that this is a step in the right direction, it improves the democracy of this state by getting rid of as many unnecessary obstacles to people being able to voice their opinion and position on the current issues. That said I don't like how it was removed, and gives me a dark, eerie feeling when I think about the capabilities of how sneaky legislators can be.