‘Outrageous conduct’: Dissenting judge in Texas redistricting case says ruling was made before dissent could be written

One day after a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and will instead need to stick with the lines passed in 2021, the dissenting judge slammed his two colleagues, saying they rushed the decision and published their opinion before he even had a chance to finish writing his dissent.

Judge Jerry Smith, who sits on the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, published his 100-page dissent on Wednesday.

In the preliminary statement, he spoke of highlighting the “pernicious judicial misbehavior” of US District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who wrote the majority decision in the case.

“In my 37 years on the federal bench, this is the most outrageous conduct by a judge that I have ever encountered in a case in which I have been involved,” Smith said