Dallas judge says Tony Romo's loss to NFL in fantasy football case at center of effort to unseat him - Dallas News (blog)

Two lawyers representing a business backed by Tony Romo sat shoulder-to-shoulder in a Dallas appeals court. A lower court judge had thrown out their case against the National Football League, and they wanted the ruling overturned.

"It was the NFL's burden to prove every element of their defense, and they simply didn't do that," one of the attorneys, Julie Pettit, told the panel of appellate justices, who fired back questions.

It could be weeks or months before the appellate court returns a decision. But Pettit and her partner in the case, Michael Hurst, have found another way to take aim at the lower court judge who ruled against them. They are trying to unseat him in the coming Democratic primary.

Both Pettit and Hurst say their support of a challenger to Civil District Court Judge Carl Ginsberg is not about his ruling against them in the high-profile dispute between Romo and the NFL. They say they simply think his opponent would be a better judge.

"This is definitely about more than any one case," said Pettit.

Hurst, recently elected president of the Dallas Bar Association, agreed.

"Suffice it to say that I have had enough experience in his court ‐and have colleagues with similar experiences - to have formed my opinions," he said in an email.

But no lawyers have lined up to support Ginsberg's opponent, Bridgett Whitmore, as strongly as Pettit, her firm, and Hurst. Together, they've given Whitmore $14,747 of the $23,312 she has raised, according to recent disclosures.

Ginsberg says Pettit and Hurst have put a target on his back because they're upset about his ruling in the Romo case. Lawyers should challenge rulings in the appeals court, he says, not by throwing money into a political campaign.

"Judges should make decisions based on the rule of law and not who the lawyers are in the room," Ginsberg said. "You shouldn't have judges being bullied and intimidated and be compromising the independence of the judiciary."

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