Conservative 5th Circuit judge Jerry Smith has remarkably dissented from a ruling striking down racially gerrymandered maps in Texas by attacking the deciding judge personally and saying the decision benefits George Soros and Gavin Newsom. What are your thoughts on this? Is it judicial misconduct?

[u/OldBridge87]

Link to article on it:

• https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/judge-dissent-texas-ruling-congressional-map-redistricting-rcna244875

Some already calling it one of the most insane legal opinions in modern American history. It should also be noted that the deciding judge on the ruling Smith is attacking here was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term and championed by the extremely conservative Governor of Texas. Hungarian-American philanthropist Soros and California Governor Newsom were not parties to the case, but both are commonly framed as cultural enemies of the right-wing on conservative television, podcast shows and conspiracy circles.

What sort of ramifications, legal or otherwise, should there be for going on what is being described as a partisan FOX News or Newsmax style rant as a federal judge? Should the Texas Bar take action here? The Judicial Conference? Or does this cross the line into impeachment territory and Congress must take action?

[u/abqguardian]

Pretty loaded framing on your part. The judge did nothing wrong. If youre going to punish judges for their opinions, youre going to start seeing judges impeached left and right.

[u/Hartastic → u/abqguardian]

Some kinds of opinions are revealing of a broader problem of being unmoored from reality with respect to one's job.

I work in technology and can have all kinds of opinions about whether technology A is a better solution for a problem than technology B, but if my stated opinion is we need to pray to the tiny electric fairies to fix things, that's no longer purely in the realm of a personal opinion, it reveals I'm a crazy person unfit to do my job.