“Nobel Prize for Fiction”: Judge criticizes colleague in Texas redistricting case | Texas
In a highly unusual opinion, a US federal judge berated his fellow judge with a series of personal attacks and suggested that billionaire George Soros had a role in the opinion that toppled Texas’ congressional districts.
the 104 opposition pages The remarks from U.S. District Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, came a day after two of his colleagues on a three-judge panel said the new congressional map Texas adopted earlier this year was likely illegal because it discriminated against nonwhite voters.
But much of Smith’s dissent attacked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee and author of the opinion, accusing him of intentionally issuing an opinion before Smith had a chance to write his dissent.
“In my 37 years on the federal bench, this was the most egregious behavior by a judge I have ever encountered in a case in which I was involved,” Smith wrote, going on to provide a dramatization of his exchanges with Brown as he authored the majority opinion.
“However, if there were a Nobel Prize for fiction, Justice Brown’s opinion would be the leading candidate.”
In a stunning turn, Smith turned his attention to George Soros, Soros’s son Alex, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, none of whom were party to the case. Soros’ name appears 17 times in the opinion.
“The two main winners in Judge Brown’s opinion are George Soros and Gavin Newsom. The clear losers are the people of Texas and the rule of law,” Smith wrote.
Newsom successfully convinced California voters to pass a statewide ballot referendum that would add up to five Democratic-leaning congressional districts in that state. Newsom announced the effort as Texas moved forward with its new map to add five GOP-friendly districts.
Smith stressed that many of the lawyers in the case are connected to organizations that receive funding from the Open Society Foundations, Soros’s nonprofit. “I affirm that all of them serve, as officials of this court, with integrity and professionalism. Their partisan circumstances do not detract from the fact that they meet the highest standards of the profession and assist this court in the administration of justice,” he said in a footnote.
He also accused an expert witness of being an “agent of Soros.”
Trump attacked the Open Society Foundations, the main donor to leftist groups, and the Department of Justice He is said to be exploring ways to investigate the matter. The president said George Soros should be in prison.
“It’s all politics, on both sides of the aisle,” Smith said. “George and Alex Soros have their hands in all of this.”
This reprimand comes at a time when judges across the country face unprecedented threats and harassment. Some even They began to speak out against them more forcefully.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, He said He will appeal the committee’s ruling to the US Supreme Court and ask the justices to intervene and halt the ruling.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a tweet in response to the opposition: sharing Her support: “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
While many conservative legal figures welcomed Smith’s opinion on Wednesday, the strategy could backfire before the U.S. Supreme Court, Richard Hasen, a professor of election law at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
“Simply put, strategically, if Justice Smith’s audience had been the Supreme Court, I think he would have been far more effective had he measured up and focused more attention on what he saw as flaws in the merits of the case, rather than constantly questioning the other judges, experts, and lawyers in the case.” books.
“What he says may resonate with some Supreme Court justices, but I expect some will be upset by this rant.”