Reed O'Connor

Judge Reed O’Connor is a George W. Bush-appointed judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. O’Connor has been called “one of the most unapologetic Republican partisans in the entire federal judiciary” and has been accused of “out-Trump[ing] the Trumpers.”

He has also been described as “a favorite of Republican leaders” in Texas for “reliably tossing out Democratic policies they have challenged.” The Texas Attorney General’s Office has been accused of “strategically fil[ing] key lawsuits in Judge O’Connor’s jurisdiction,” a practice referred to as “forum shopping” or “judge shopping.” “The North Texas judge has emerged as something of a favorite for the Texas Attorney General’s Office, a notoriously litigious legal battalion known for challenging the federal government in cases and controversies across the country,” the Texas Tribune reported.

The Texas Republican Attorney General’s Office has filed numerous lawsuits in his court, frequently challenging Democratic presidential administration policies.

Stephen Miller’s right-wing legal group American First Legal Foundation has also filed roughly a dozen lawsuits in the Northern District of Texas, largely challenging Biden policies. According to Bloomberg Law, all but one of the cases were filed in Fort Worth or Amarillo, resulting in O’Connor typically being assigned to the case.

Since he was confirmed in 2007, O’Connor “has been at the center of some of the most contentious and partisan cases involving federal power and states’ rights, and has sided with conservative leaders in previous challenges to the health law and against efforts to expand transgender rights…his rulings illustrate the ways in which the federal district courts have become politically weaponized, as Republicans and Democrats alike try to handpick judges they see as ideologically friendly to their cases,” according to the New York Times.

O’Connor also recently blocked guidelines issued by the Biden administration that extended federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ students. In 2016, he declared an Obama administration policy that would ban doctors and hospitals from discriminating against transgender people violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). He cited RFRA again in a 2022 ruling when he declared the ACA preventive care coverage of PrEP, a medication that prevents HIV, violated the 1993 legislation. In 2015, he blocked an Obama administration effort to extend family leave benefits to gay couples and in 2016, he ruled against allowing transgender children to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

One of O’Connor’s most notable decisions includes a 2018 ruling declaring the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional, despite the Supreme Court previously finding it constitutional.

O’Connor has also come under fire for failing to recuse himself from cases in which he has a conflict of interest, such as in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Media Matters for America (MMFA) after the group reported that Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) was showing big-ticket ads “next to white nationalist hashtags like ‘KeepEuropeWhite,’ ‘white pride,’ and ‘WLM’ (‘White Lives Matter’).” Musk, who has “blurred the lines” between his personal identity and his Tesla/Elon Musk, and his team of lawyers brought the case that legal experts called “bogus” in the Northern District of Texas, despite MMFA operating out of D.C. and X being headquartered in California.

After Judge Mark Pittman recused himself from the case for unspecified reasons, MMFA also called on O’Connor to step down, given his disclosures show he “may own between $15,001 and $50,000 of Tesla stock.” O’Connor was also called to dismiss a Chamber of Commerce lawsuit against the Biden administration’s credit card late fee cap, which he did, only after the watchdog group Accountable.us found that he had personally invested up to tens of thousands of dollars in credit card-issuing companies, including U.S. Chamber members.

O’Connor has also been a frequent contributor to the Leonard Leo-led Federalist Society, where he has spoken alongside other judge-shopper favorites Trump appointees Matthew Kacsmaryk and James Ho, who is a vehement defender of the forum-shopping practice.

During the Senate’s consideration of his nomination, O’Connor drew scrutiny for his involvement with Brother House, an organization described by Tulsa World as an organization that is committed to developing male spirituality and fatherhood in response to “‘male bashing’ from the opposite sex.” “You are identified as a Director or Adviser of the organization in the same newspaper article,” the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote in a question for O’Connor. “In response to questioning by Senator Durbin, you explained that the organization ‘was a group that was started by a friend of mine … It was principally a place for men to gather to talk about issues related to men’s life.’ You confirmed having attended meetings but said that you participated ‘two or three times 25 or 30 years ago.’”

The hearing on his nomination also raised concerns over his representation of a local church, Kirk of the Hills, which tried and “failed to persuade national church leaders to maintain their policy barring LGBT individuals from leadership positions, including as clergy members.” After failing to persuade the leaders, “Kirk of the Hills voted to leave the national Presbyterian Church and proceeded to litigate the ownership of the property in Oklahoma on which the local church building was situated.”

Prior to his appointment, from 2003 to 2007, he worked for the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and impressed Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to reporting by the New York Times. O’Connor was Chief Counsel to the Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship under Cornyn.