A Hard-Right Trump Judge Battles Texas Officials Who Jail Their Critics – By Mark Joseph Stern (Slate) / Feb 24, 2023
Can the government arrest and jail citizens for criticizing public officials? The answer might seem obvious in light of the First Amendment. In the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, however, it is not. Instead, the court has blessed the detention of one Texas resident for daring to criticize state officials, and may be on the brink of doing so again. This approval of censorship by force should come as no shock from the far-right 5th Circuit. What’s unusual is who has decided to take the strongest stance against it: James Ho, an ultra-conservative Donald Trump nominee. In two recent major cases, Ho has vociferously condemned Texas’ brutal retaliation against critics of the government, condemning the practice as “totalitarian.” It is an ominous sign of the 5th Circuit’s increasingly authoritarian jurisprudence that Ho must beg his colleagues to safeguard the most foundational guarantees of free speech.
Ho is an unlikely candidate for this role. Since his appointment in 2018, he has gained notoriety as a hard-right firebrand eager to fight the culture wars from the bench. He fills his opinions with trollish partisan rhetoric, railing against abortion, gun control, vaccine mandates, cancel culture, and the “woke Constitution.” Recently, he announced that he would boycott clerks from Yale Law School, asserting (dubiously) that the school silenced conservative voices. As a rule, you would not want Ho to be in charge of protecting your constitutional rights, unless you have the kind of grievance that would resonate with Tucker Carlson.
And yet, in two of the most disturbing First Amendment cases of the decade so far—Gonzalez v. Trevino and Villarreal v. Laredo—Ho has emerged as an impassioned opponent of crass, carceral censorship. Start with Gonzalez. In 2019, 72-year-old Sylvia Gonzalez ran a successful campaign for city council in Castle Hills, Texas, a town of 5,000. She heard from residents that the current city manager, Ryan Rapelye, was doing a poor job. So, once on the council, Gonzalez launched a nonbinding citizen petition urging the council to replace Rapelye.
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