James Ho | |||||||||||||||
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| Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office January 4, 2018 | |||||||||||||||
| Appointed by | Donald Trump | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Carolyn Dineen King | ||||||||||||||
| 4th Solicitor General of Texas | |||||||||||||||
| In office May 12, 2008 – December 9, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Attorney General | Greg Abbott | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ted Cruz | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jonathan F. Mitchell | ||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1973-02-27)February 27, 1973 (age 52) Taipei,Taiwan | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Education | Stanford University (BA) University of Chicago (JD) | ||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 何俊宇 | ||||||||||||||
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James Chiun-Yue Ho (Chinese: 何俊宇;pinyin:Hé Jùnyǔ; born February 27, 1973) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2018 as aUnited States circuit judge of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by PresidentDonald Trump, becoming the Fifth Circuit's only Asian-American judge and the only judge to be an immigrant.[1]
Born toTaiwanese American immigrants, Ho immigrated from Taiwan as a child and graduated fromStanford University and theUniversity of Chicago Law School. He served as theSolicitor General of Texas from 2008 to 2010, becoming the first Asian-American to hold the position.[2] He has been identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee for Donald Trump's second term.[3][4][5][6]
Ho was born on February 27, 1973, inTaipei,Taiwan, to So-Hwa and Steve Song-Shan Ho.[7] His father was a doctor who specialized inobstetrics and gynecology.[8] TheTaiwanese American family immigrated to the United States when Ho was a child, moving first toLong Island before settling inSan Marino, California.[8] He became anaturalized U.S. citizen at age nine.[9]
Ho was educated at thePolytechnic School, a rigorous private school inPasadena, where he became the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper,The Paw Print.[10] He was a high school classmate ofLeondra Kruger, who later became a judge of theSupreme Court of California.[11] Ho volunteered as an actor and dancer for school plays and briefly served as a footballlineman. A classmate described Ho as "super-intense; he walked fast, laid out pages fast, and drove too fast, in a Ford Probe".[8]
After high school, Ho studiedpublic policy at Stanford University, where he wrote forThe Stanford Daily and graduated in 1995 with aBachelor of Arts with honors.[8] From 1995 to 1996, Ho was a California Senate Fellow atCalifornia State University, Sacramento, and worked as a legislative aide to California state legislatorQuentin L. Kopp.[12] He then attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of theUniversity of Chicago Law Review, joined theFederalist Society, and also served as an editor forThe Green Bag.[8]
In 1998, Ho served as the executive editor of theHarvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.[12] He earned hisJuris Doctor degree with high honors and membership in theOrder of the Coif from the University of Chicago in 1999.[13] Upon graduation, the law school awarded him its Ann Watson Barber Outstanding Service Award,[12] given for "exceptional contributions to the quality of life at the Law School".[14]
After graduating from law school, Ho was alaw clerk to Fifth Circuit judgeJerry Edwin Smith from 1999 to 2000. He then was in private practice inWashington, D.C., at the law firmGibson Dunn from 2000 to 2001.[7] He assisted Gibson Dunn partnerTheodore Olson with his representation ofGeorge W. Bush in the Supreme Court caseBush v. Gore.[8] From 2001 to 2003, Ho was an attorney at theUnited States Department of Justice, first in theCivil Rights Division in 2001 and then in theOffice of Legal Counsel from 2001–2003.[7] He was chief counsel to subcommittees of theSenate Judiciary Committee from 2003 to 2005 under Republican SenatorJohn Cornyn.[15][7] From 2005 to 2006, Ho was a law clerk to Supreme Court justiceClarence Thomas.[7]
After his Supreme Court clerkship, Ho returned to private practice at Gibson Dunn in itsDallas office from 2006 to 2008 and 2010 to 2017.[7] From 2008 to 2010, he was theSolicitor General of Texas in the Office of theAttorney General of Texas,[7] replacingTed Cruz in that position.[15] As Texas solicitor general, Ho led the state's lawsuits against theObama administration.[15]
Ho has worked as a volunteer attorney with theFirst Liberty Institute, a religious legal advocacy organization.[16][17] He has held multiple positions as a member of theFederalist Society since 1996.[12]
On September 28, 2017, PresidentDonald Trump announced his intent to nominate Ho as a United States circuit judge to an undetermined seat on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.[18] Cruz had promoted Ho as a candidate for a vacancy on the court.[18] On October 16, 2017, Trump sent Ho's nomination to the Senate. He was nominated to the seat vacated by JudgeCarolyn Dineen King, who assumedsenior status on December 31, 2013.[19] On November 15, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before theSenate Judiciary Committee.[20] On December 7, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote.[21] On December 13, 2017, theUnited States Senate invokedcloture on his nomination by a 53–44 vote.[22] On December 14, 2017, Ho's nomination was confirmed by a 53–43 vote.[23] He received his judicial commission on January 4, 2018.[7] He was sworn in by JusticeClarence Thomas at the private library of Texan real estate billionaire and Republican donorHarlan Crow.[24]
On September 9, 2020, Trump included Ho on a list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court.[25] Trump nominatedAmy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed. Ho has again been identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee should Donald Trump be reelected in 2024.[3] SenatorJosh Hawley (R-MO) stated in June 2024 that he believes Ho "has done a terrific job on the 5th [Circuit]" and that Ho is "principled" and "will be immune to theGreenhouse effect.”[26] SenatorTed Cruz (R-TX) has also expressed support for Ho's elevation to the Supreme Court.[27] Ho was named to the shortlist of presidential candidateVivek Ramaswamy.[28]
On September 29, 2022, Ho delivered a speech at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky and said he would no longer hire law clerks fromYale Law School, which he said was plagued by "cancel culture" and students disrupting conservative speakers. Ho said Yale "not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it.", and he urged other judges to likewise boycott the school.[29][30] U.S. Circuit JudgeElizabeth L. Branch of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed her participation in the Yale boycott in a statement toNational Review. Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future.[31]
On May 6, 2024, Ho cosigned a letter alongside twelve federal judges, which he shared with CNN, vowing not to hire Columbia University law students or undergraduates for concerns that the university is not doing enough to counter students protesting the war in Gaza.[32] Ho asked in the letter that the university should identify "students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them. If not, employers are forced to assume the risk that anyone they hire from Columbia may be one of these disruptive and hateful students."[33]
Ho has been outspoken against illegal immigration, suggesting “a sovereign isn’t a sovereign if it can't control its borders” and that “[o]ur national objectives are undercut when states encourage illegal entry into the United States.”[34][35] He has stated that “[i]f only ‘the political branches of the federal government’ can decide if a state has been invaded, it effectively prohibits states from exercising their sovereign right of self-defense without federal permission.”[36] Ho has also defended the use of the term “alien,” arguing it should not be seen as offensive, noting that “[i]t’s a centuries-old legal term found in countless judicial decisions.”[37]
On April 18, 2018, in his first written opinion as a Fifth Circuit judge, Ho dissented from a denial of a rehearingen banc in a case regarding alimit on campaign contributions. The Fifth Circuit three-judge panel upheld the constitutionality of aCity of Austin ordinance setting an individual campaign contribution limit of $350 per election for candidates for mayor and city council, rejecting the plaintiff's claim that the limit violated theFirst Amendment. In his dissent, Ho argued the court "should have granted rehearingen banc and held that the Austin contribution limit violates the First Amendment" and asserted that "if there is too much money in politics, it's because there's too much government."[38][39][40]
In 2020, Ho was a member of a panel that stayed a preliminary injunction entered by U.S. District JudgeSamuel Frederick Biery Jr. that expanded the right to use amail-in ballot to all Texas voters during the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic (allowing broader use of mail-in voting than under the Texas Election Code, which entitled only Texas voters over age 65 to vote absentee without an excuse). Ho wrote a separate concurring opinion favoring the state officials.[41][42][43][44][45]
On September 9, 2021, Ho authored the majority opinion for an en banc panel inHelix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, interpreting a provision of theFair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Ho was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion authored by JusticeElena Kagan.[46]
Ho is married to Allyson Paix Newton Ho (née Newton, formerly Heidelbaugh), a partner in the Dallas office ofGibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chair of the firm's appellate practice group. Ho met Allyson Newton when he was a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith inHouston, Texas, and Newton had been a law student working for a Houston firm.[8] They married on April 17, 2004.[47] Newton earned a Ph.D. in English fromRice University and served as a law clerk to JusticeSandra Day O'Connor. She has argued four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.[15] They have twin children, a daughter and son.[48]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Solicitor General of Texas 2008–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 2018–present | Incumbent |