Judge Tim Sulak and the El Paso Stadium Boondoggle

Cahnman's Musings frequently listens to talk radio via 690 KTSM in El Paso.  Because we listen to this station, we've kept an eye on the ongoing boondoggle of El Paso's new minor league baseball stadium.  It was strong armed through the political process through the usual suspect of local government contractors and special interests.  When citizens objected, they took the city to court and (through some weird foible in state law), it ended up in the Austin courtoom of Judge Tim Sulak.  In that ruling, Judge Sulak did what Judge Sulak does best:

District Judge Tim Sulak on Wednesday sided with the city of El Paso, ruling that the process to demolish city hall and move forward with the ballpark project was legal. 

"It is my judgment, based on the evidence, the authorities and the arguments that the authority to issue and the actions taken to secure or obtain, the public securities are legal and valid," Sulak said at Wednesday's declaratory judgment hearing.

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Wednesday's ruling also allows the city of El Paso to sell bonds to fund the project.

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The decision can be appealed, but the Judge set a surety bond of $1 million.That means if they appeal within 30 days, the opposition of the city needs to put that money up.

In other words, Judge Tim Sulak has a pattern of making it prohibitively expensive for concerned citizens to challenge big-government special interests.