Justice Kristin Guiney has died at 51. The governor fills her Harris County appellate seat, and no First Court of Appeals place is on the state's 2026 list.

The First Court of Appeals announced Friday that Justice Kristin Guiney has died at 51. Under the Texas Constitution her seat is filled by the governor until the next general election for state officers, and the Secretary of State’s list of offices up for election in 2026 does not include a First Court of Appeals place.

Why it matters

The First Court of Appeals hears appeals from Harris County and nine other counties. It has nine seats, and one of them is now empty. Whoever fills it will take the bench without having stood before a voter in the district, and will hear criminal and civil appeals from the largest county in Texas.

By the numbers

51, her age, per The Texas Lawbook.
Nine seats on the First Court of Appeals, one chief justice and eight justices, each elected to a six-year term.
Ten counties in the court’s district: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Waller and Washington.
November 2024, when she was elected to the court, per ABC13. A six-year term seated in January 2025 runs through 2030.
The 232nd and 179th district courts in Harris County, which she presided over before the appellate bench, per The Texas Lawbook.
Zero First Court of Appeals places on the Secretary of State’s published list of offices up for election in 2026.

What the coverage buried

The accounts this desk could read carried the court’s statement and her record. None of them says what happens to the seat.

Article V, Section 28 of the Texas Constitution is one sentence: “A vacancy in the office of Chief Justice, Justice, or Judge of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Court of Appeals, or the District Courts shall be filled by the Governor until the next succeeding General Election for state officers, and at that election the voters shall fill the vacancy for the unexpired term.”

The Secretary of State’s own 2026 list shows no First Court of Appeals place on it. Both documents are public, both are short, and neither appeared in the coverage. A reader can open them and check in about two minutes.

The other side

The day a court announces a judge’s death is not an obvious day to write about who gets her chair, and the outlets that led with the statement from her colleagues made a defensible call. That statement describes a career spent in public work, starting as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, then on the trial bench handling complex felony matters, then on appeal. ABC13 reported she also served as a Star Court judge. Readers in Harris County who knew her from a courtroom are owed that first.

The appointment is going to happen either way, and the seat belongs to the public. Both facts fit in the same week.

What to watch

Whether the governor’s office names an appointee, and when.
Whether the Secretary of State adds a First Court of Appeals place to a future election list, and for which year.
How the court reassigns pending Harris County appeals that were on her panel.
The court’s own justices page, which has not yet been updated to show the vacancy.

Bottom line

A seat covering ten counties, Harris among them, changes hands by appointment rather than by election, and the state’s published 2026 ballot list does not carry it. That is worth knowing in the same week the court asks the public to remember a colleague, and it is not a criticism of anyone to say so.

Sources

Editorial