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Reed Charles O'Connor (born June 1, 1965) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He was nominated by President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
in 2007. Critics claim that O'Connor has become a "go-to" favorite for conservative lawyers, as he reliably rules against Democratic policies and for Republican policies. Attorneys General in Texas appear to strategically file cases in O'Connor's jurisdiction so that he will hear them. O'Connor has widely been described as conservative, and many of his rulings have been reversed on appeal.


Early life and career

Born in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
to George John O'Connor and Eileen Star Boyle, O'Connor received a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree from the
University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...
in 1986 and a
Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
from South Texas College of Law in 1989. He was in private practice in
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
from 1989 to 1994 and an assistant district attorney with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office in
Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
from 1994 to 1998. O'Connor then served as Assistant United States Attorney of the Northern District of Texas from 1998 to 2007. From 2003 to 2007, he worked on the staff of the
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...
. and served as chief counsel to U.S. Senator John Cornyn from 2005 to 2007.


Federal judicial service

On June 27, 2007, O'Connor was nominated by President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated by A. Joe Fish. The
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
confirmed O'Connor's appointment on November 16, 2007, and he received his commission on November 21, 2007.


Significant cases

O'Connor has widely been described as conservative, and many of his rulings have been reversed on appeal. He has long been active in the Federalist Society, and is a contributor who has frequently spoken at the organization's events in Texas. According to his critics, O'Connor has become a "go-to" favorite for conservative lawyers, because, they claim, he reliably rules against Democratic policies and for Republican policies. Attorneys General in Texas appear to strategically file cases in O'Connor's jurisdiction so that he will hear them. On February 11, 2015, O'Connor held that a portion of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 was unconstitutional. This ruling was reversed on appeal. On March 26, 2015, O'Connor enjoined the federal government's definition of marriage as it relates to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. He dissolved the injunction following the Supreme Court's decision in '' Obergefell v. Hodges''. On August 21, 2016, O'Connor issued a ruling against the Obama administration dealing with the government's interpretation of Title IX rules. The guidance from the White House was issued in May 2016, and addresses the Title IX requirement that schools receiving federal funding not discriminate against students on the basis of sex. The ruling required that
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
students be allowed to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. O'Connor ruled that the new guidelines did not receive proper notice and comment prior to publication, and that Title IX and its implementing regulation are "not ambiguous" as to the "plain meaning of the term sex as used". He then issued a nationwide injunction preventing them from being enforced with respect to students' access to "intimate facilities." The Obama administration appealed the decision, but the Trump administration rescinded the guidance and moved to dismiss the appeal. On December 31, 2016, in a separate case, O'Connor issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Obama administration's regulations implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded health programs) as a likely violation of the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religio ...
and what he said was an improper inclusion of gender identity discrimination. In early 2018, O'Connor held the Certification Rule of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in ''Texas v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue'', concluding that it violated the
nondelegation doctrine The doctrine of nondelegation (or non-delegation principle) is the theory that one branch of government must not authorize another entity to exercise the power or function which it is constitutionally authorized to exercise itself. It is wikt:exp ...
. This ruling was reversed on appeal. In 2018, O'Connor ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act was unconstitutional. The Fifth Circuit reversed O'Connor's ruling on appeal, and the reversal was upheld by the Supreme Court in '' Haaland v. Brackeen'' (2023). On October 31, 2021, O'Connor ruled that the First Amendment and the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religio ...
provide religious employers an exemption from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act's ban on discrimination "on the basis of...sex". In 2022, O'Connor issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for its Navy Seals. O'Connor said the U.S. government had "no license" to abrogate the freedoms of the Navy SEALs. The preliminary injunction was partially stayed by the Supreme Court on March 25, 2022. In October 2022, O'Connor ruled that the Boeing Company committed criminal acts when not disclosing the MCAS system of the FAA. This contradicted the previous settlement the federal government made with Boeing, and opened the door for new legal action by victims families. In ''VanDerStok v. Garland'' (2023), O'Connor issued a nationwide injunction blocking a rule issued in 2022 by the ATF that classified receiver blanks as "firearms" or firearm "frames or receivers" within the meaning of the Gun Control Act.Andrew Chung & John Kruzel
Biden administration asks US Supreme Court to block 'ghost gun' ruling
Reuters (July 27, 2023).
Ian Millhiser
A new Supreme Court case could allow criminals to get guns without background checks
''Vox'' (August 1, 2023).
By classifying receiver blanks as firearms, the ATF rule required such receiver blanks to have serial numbers, required manufacturers of such receiver blanks to be licensed, and required commercial sellers to conduct background checks for purchasers. O'Connor determined that the ATF rule exceeded the agency's authority, ruling that receiver blanks were not firearms or firearm receivers. The U.S. has appealed to the Fifth Circuit, and O'Connor's injunction was administratively stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court pending further proceedings. The Supreme Court later reversed O'Connor's opinion in '' Bondi v. VanDerStok'', in an opinion written by Trump appointee
Neil Gorsuch Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ; born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court ...
. In an act criticized as an example of
forum shopping Forum shopping is a Colloquialism, colloquial term for the practice of litigants taking actions to have their legal case heard in the court they believe is most likely to provide a favorable judgment. Some jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions hav ...
,
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
's website X (Twitter) filed two lawsuits in O'Connor's court division although neither it nor the defendants are located in Texas. Judge O'Connor drew additional scrutiny after published reports revealed that he owned stock in Tesla, another company run by Musk. On August 13, 2024, Judge O'Connor recused himself from one of those cases — the lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers.


Affordable Care Act

On December 14, 2018, O'Connor ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. O'Connor ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional by saying " heIndividual Mandate can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress's Tax Power and is still impermissible under the Interstate Commerce Clause—meaning the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional." This is in reference to '' National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius'' (2012) which ruled that the individual mandate was constitutional because of the tax penalty. The penalty was reduced to $0 by the 2017 tax bill starting in 2019. The ruling was deemed likely to be appealed, with both Republican and Democratic legal experts saying that the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act was unlikely to succeed. The Affordable Care Act would remain in effect throughout the appeals process. President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
commended the ruling on Twitter. Legal experts who both support and oppose the Affordable Care Act harshly criticized O'Connor's ruling, with ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' noting that legal scholars considered O'Connor's ruling "as a tortured effort to rewrite not just the law but congressional history." Ted Frank, director of litigation at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute said the ruling was "embarrassingly bad." Nicholas Bagley said O'Connor's ruling was "about as naked a piece of judicial activism as I have ever seen; I don't even think it's close." Jonathan H. Adler and Abbe R. Gluck, who were on opposing sides of the 2012 and 2015 Supreme Court challenges to the Affordable Care Act, wrote a joint opinion editorial in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' where they described the ruling as "lawless", "a mockery of the rule of law and basic principles of democracy" and "an exercise of raw judicial power." While O'Connor's ruling was upheld on appeal to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...
, O'Connor and the Fifth Circuit were reversed by the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
in a 7-2 ruling issued on June 17, 2021, which stated that the parties involved in the lawsuit did not have standing to bring the suit. Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was joined in the majority by Chief Justice
John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American jurist serving since 2005 as the 17th chief justice of the United States. He has been described as having a Moderate conservatism, moderate conservative judicial philosophy, thoug ...
and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion while Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion and was joined by Associate Justice
Neil Gorsuch Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ; born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court ...
. In ''Braidwood Management Inc., et. al. v. Xavier Becerra, et. al.'', on March 30, 2023, O'Connor sided with conservative employers and individuals in Texas who argued that the Affordable Care Act's provision mandating that businesses provide their employees with free coverage of preventative services including mammograms, colonoscopies, mental health screenings, and the HIV prevention drug PrEP was unconstitutional. Coverage recommendations are driven by the volunteer U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; O'Connor ruled that enforcing these recommendations was "unlawful" and violated the
Appointments Clause The Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution empowers the president of the United States to nominate and, with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the United States Senate, appoint public officials. Although the Senate must con ...
of the U.S. Constitution. He also wrote that the coverage requirements violate employers' religious beliefs "by making them complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman."


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Reed Charles 1965 births Living people Assistant United States attorneys Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas Lawyers from Houston South Texas College of Law alumni United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush University of Houston alumni