(via YouTube)
Fifth Circuit judge James Ho is back at it! And by “it” I mean making headlines by espousing far right views in a likely effort to secure a spot on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist. For his latest issue, Ho has staked out a retrograde position on birthright citizenship.
Sure, Ho has previously written that it would take a constitutional amendment to overturn birthright citizenship, but that was way back in 2006! That’s before the Republican party took the hardest of hard right turns. Now Ho — an immigrant himself, mind you — is happy to stand on the necks of immigrants to curry favor with Donald Trump! As reported by Bloomberg Law, Ho did a recent interview with a like-minded audience (South Texas College of Law professor Joshua Blackman) to announce that he was on board with Trump’s latest hobby horse.
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Ho pointed to his writings on the appeals court, in which he’s embraced the declaration by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of an “invasion” on the state’s border with Mexico in litigation.
Ho said those who have read his writings on the invasion declaration and on birthright citizenship “should see a direct connection” between the two.
“No one to my knowledge has ever argued that the children of invading aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship,” Ho said. “And I can’t imagine what the legal argument for that would be.”
This is far from the first time that Ho has seemed to dust off his resume and let Trump know just how far he’ll go to stick it to the libs. He’s used a dissent to criticize Texas (of all places) for being too soft on immigration; hijacked a concurrence to mark out a new low for reproductive freedom; went to war with woke law schools; came up with bizarre defenses for Clarence Thomas; invented new categories of damages for anti-Vaxxers; looked to the Bible to justify his jurisprudence; and so much more.
Kenneth Manning, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, confirmed to Bloomberg Law what we’ve all been thinking about Ho’s increasingly far-right public statements. “For judges who are ambitious, it’s a way to put your name on the Supreme Court shortlist. I don’t think there are many people who doubt that Ho’s maneuvers here are probably an attempt to do that.”
At least one person is helping Ho play hard to get. I leave it to you to take that grain of salt.
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“Judge Ho loves his family and loathes D.C.,” Gibson Dunn partner Brad Hubbard said in an email. Ho’s chambers are in Dallas.
Hubbard noted that Ho’s wife, fellow Gibson Dunn partner Allyson Ho, is an appellate lawyer who has argued two cases before the Supreme Court in the past year. If Judge Ho were to become a justice, it would raise conflicts issues for his spouse.
“I think that’s why he feels free to speak his mind now, just as he has in public writings and speeches for the past 30 years,” Hubbard said.
Pardon me while I roll my eyes so hard. Listen, Ho has been *grinding* out there, making sure his name keeps on coming up as “noted conservative jurist.” Post-election he told a Federalist Society panel “Too many academics regard the views of half the country as garbage.” Then appeared on an episode of Advisory Opinions to defend his boycott on hiring law students that go to schools where he has an axe to grind. (And to take a swipe at another potential SCOTUS candidate, the Sixth Circuit’s Amul Thapar.)
Now, there aren’t any Supreme Court seats currently open. But the rumors have been swirling that Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (Ho clerked for latter, and there’s a recent trend of hiring SCOTUS clerks to replace the justices they worked for) are eyeing retirement. And you *know* Ho’s name will come up if they do.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].