Circuit Court Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, has issued a scathing 104-page dissent in response to the recent decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown to block Texas’ redistricting map. In his dissent, Smith accused Brown of engaging in ‘judicial activism’ and called the ruling a ‘prime candidate’ for a ‘Nobel Prize for Fiction.’ The dissent, which was unusually long and pointed, not only took aim at the majority opinion but also repeatedly invoked Democratic mega-donor George Soros, framing the decision as an attempt to serve political interests.
The ruling, which overturned the state’s proposed 2026 congressional map, claimed that the redistricting was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, creating five new Republican-leaning districts that could significantly alter the balance of political power in the state. The decision was issued by a three-judge panel, with Brown and David Guaderrama, an Obama appointee, forming the majority. The dissent, however, was not included in the initial release of the ruling and appeared on the docket a day later, raising questions about the judicial process and the transparency of the final opinion.
Smith, who graduated from Yale Law School, called the majority opinion ‘a law school examination that would deserve an