Justice Ken Wise is in his 22nd year of service as a Texas judge. He served as Judge of the 152nd District Court and the 334th District Court before joining the 14th Court of Appeals, where he has served for the past twelve years. Justice Wise earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, where he competed as a member of the intercollegiate rodeo team, and his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. He is currently completing a master’s degree in history from Sam Houston State University.
Justice Wise is active in the service of the bar and judiciary. He is a member of the Texas Judicial Council, which sets policy for the Texas judicial system, and is Vice-Chairman of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which adjudicates ethics complaints against members of the judiciary. He co-chaired a State Bar task force that conducted the first complete study of the Texas court system since 1892, served two terms on the Texas Access to Justice Commission, and has served as a visiting judge in counties across Texas. An elected member of the American Law Institute, he focuses on the laws of policing and the law of American Indians.
An avid Texas historian, Justice Wise hosts the award-winning Texas history podcast Wise About Texas, which has been heard by over 1.8 million people in 165 countries and ranks in the top one-half of one percent of podcasts worldwide according to ListenNotes.com. He is a past president of the Texas State Historical Association and the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, and serves as an adjunct professor at Houston Christian University. He has published several journal articles and given hundreds of speeches on various aspects of Texas history.
A native Houstonian, Justice Wise is active in the Houston community. He is an Admiral in the Texas Navy, and the Governor of Kentucky has commissioned him as a Kentucky Colonel. He has one daughter, Sarah Jane.
