Judged by the Works, Minus the Hairpiece: When Justice Meets Politics, Law, Power, and Ethics
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralPolitical BiographiesGeneral Law
Publisher: Gjm Media Group
Published: Aug 1 2026
Pages: 250
Weight: 1.11
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Judge Gregory J. Middents has spent more than four decades in public service, law, and politics, serving sixteen years, four terms on the bench and working on four presidential campaigns. From the campaign trail to the courtroom, he has witnessed the best and worst of American civic life. Judged by the Works, Minus the Hairpiece is his candid and deeply personal journey through the victories, betrayals, humor, and hard-earned lessons of a life devoted to justice, faith, and public service in Texas.
Raised in Texas, Middents learned early that politics is ultimately about people-their struggles, hopes, flaws, and second chances. Those lessons carried him from local campaigns to the national political stage, where he worked on the presidential campaigns of Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden's successful 2019-20 campaign. But his greatest calling would come closer to home, serving sixteen years as an elected Judge, Justice of the Peace for Grayson County, Texas. Inside the courtroom, Middents witnessed humanity at its most broken-and sometimes at its most redeeming. He established the county's first truancy court and helped pioneer jail diversion efforts that ultimately led to the creation of its first veteran's court. Along the way, he confronted tragedies that stay with judges long after the courtroom lights go dark and came to believe that compassion, accountability, and second chances can change lives more effectively than punishment alone.
Outside the courtroom, politics proved no less unforgiving. Middents faced smear campaigns, public attacks, betrayal, and threats from anti-government extremists. Through every battle, he learned that integrity is tested most when the headlines turn cruel, the crowds disappear, and standing your ground comes at a cost.
Blending political memoir, courtroom drama, Texas history, and personal reflection, Judged by the Works, Minus the Hairpiece pulls back the curtain on what really happens behind the robe-and behind America's political machine. Told with humor, humility, honesty, and an unmistakably human voice, the book offers a rare firsthand account of power, loyalty, ethics, ambition, and perseverance in modern public life.
More than a memoir, this is a story about endurance, redemption, and one man's lifelong belief that democracy only works when ordinary people are willing to fight for it.
If you've ever wondered what justice looks like when the cameras are off-or what politics demands of the people brave enough to believe in it-this is a book you will not forget.
Even amid the serious moments, Middents never loses his sense of humor-especially in the unforgettable and hilariously self-aware hairpiece chapter.
Also in
Political Biographies
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Bird, Kai
Goldmark, Susan
Hardcover
One Man in: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attack in Kenya
Craighead, Christian
Hardcover
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Murphy, Chris
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider's View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People
Freeland, Chrystia
Hardcover
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Paperback
Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America's Elite Universities
Stefanik, Elise
Hardcover
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
Anderson, Scott
Hardcover
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the Cia, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
Talbot, David
Paperback
Don't Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance
Becker, Jean
Collamore, Tom
Hardcover
Dreams of a White Snow Lion: The Remarkable Life, Vision, and Deeds of the Dalai Lama
Dhargye, Sherab
Bianca, Mariateresa
Hardcover
The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: Espionage, Scandal, and the Crime of the Century
West, Nigel
Melton, H. Keith
Hardcover
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation
Anderson, Scott
Paperback
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Browder, Bill
Paperback
The Road to Unafraid: How the Army's Top Ranger Faced Fear and Found Courage Through
Struecker, Jeff
Paperback
Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary
Meronek, Toshio
Griffin-Gracy, Major
Paperback
Finding the Third Way: Lessons in the Politics of Civility from My Journey Through History
Davis, Lanny J.
Hardcover
Unleash Your Humanity: Where Personal Awakening Becomes Collective Change
Sherif, Yasmine
Tavis, Scott
Paperback
How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Large Print) (Large Print Edition)
Kennedy, John
Paperback
Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress
Rinehart, Lorissa
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Paperback
Slow Poison: IDI Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State
Mamdani, Mahmood
Hardcover
The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Ralston, Jon
Hardcover
The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Day, Dorothy
Paperback
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Hardcover
Starting Somewhere: Community Organizing for Socially Awkward People Who've Had Enough
Douglass, Roderick
Paperback
This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story (Large Print Edition)
Gershkovich, Evan
Paperback
The First Fascist: The Sensational Life and Dark Legacy of the Marquis de Morès
Luzzatto, Sergio
Hardcover
A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid
Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla
Paperback
Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines
Jean-Pierre, Karine
Hardcover
Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House
Leganski, John
Hardcover
My Struggle: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf, Kamphf English Kampt
Hitler, Adolf
Murphy, James
Paperback
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Gage, Beverly
Paperback
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
Even After Everything: How One Humble Kibbutznik Believed in Heaven While Living Through Hell
Frischman Fischer, Betsy
Paperback
Hey Yang, Where's My Thousand Bucks?: And Other True Stories of Staggering Depth
Yang, Andrew
Hardcover
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Millard, Candice
Paperback
Ni Venganza Ni Perdón: Una Amistad Al Filo del Poder / Neither Revenge Nor Forgiveness: A Friendship on the Edge of Power
Scherer Ibarra, Julio
Fernández Menéndez, Jorge
Paperback
Reconcilable Differences: The Unlikely Political Alliance of John F. Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt
Perry, Barbara A.
Hardcover
With a Name Like Chief: Reflections on Recovery and Identity Through the Seven Sacred Teachings
Chief, Kevin
Slayen, Stu
Paperback
The Architect of Espionage: The Man Who Built Israel's Mossad Into the World's Boldest Intelligence Force
Katz, Samuel M.
Hardcover
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America
Whitaker, Mark
Paperback
Churchill's Secular Creed: Empire, Zionism, and Islam's Complicity in the Holocaust
Warraq, Ibn
Paperback
Outed: Lbj's Confidant and the Arrest That Transformed a Presidency
Stewart-Winter, Timothy
Hardcover
Detenido/Detained: El Diario de Supervivencia Y Determinación de Un Niño
Morales, Gerardo Iván
Esperanza, David
Paperback
