Judge Blasts Peer for Misconduct in Texas Maps Case
20th November 2025
A feud inside the federal judiciary burst into public view this week after a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit judge accused his colleague of blatant misconduct in the ruling that blocked Texas’ newly drawn, Republican-leaning congressional map.
In a blistering 104-page dissent released Wednesday, U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith — a former President Ronald Reagan appointee with nearly four decades on the bench — charged District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a 2019 Trump appointee, with what he called “pernicious judicial misbehavior” and the most “outrageous conduct” he has ever witnessed in his career.
The majority opinion, authored by Brown and joined by another judge, an Obama appointee, in a 2-1 vote, halted Texas’ 2025 House redistricting plan on the grounds that challengers were “likely to prove at trial” that the state engineered a racially gerrymandered map.
I know Jerry Smith. He is very smart and has a low bullshit tolerance level.