His dissent is not saying ‘This is reasonable disagreement.’ I would read it the other way. Just as some ‘Never Trump’ Republicans are the harshest critics of Trump, you can see why conservative judges could be especially harsh critics of their fellow conservatives who they feel are flouting the law.
—University of Virginia School of Law professor Joshua Fischman spoke with law.com about Reagan appointee Judge Jerry Smith’s infamous dissent in the United Airlines vaccine mandate case. In the opinion, Judge Smith went ham on the majority — in judicial terms — including pausing to “protest how the majority tortures our precedent to extract its desired result.”