For some time, I've heard rumors about unusual behavior from Judge Ada Brown in the Northern District of Texas. I was hesitant to write about the situation, because my information was incomplete and some of it was revealed in confidence. Now, the accusations are public, in part, because Judge Brown personally disclosed items to the press and others.
At the outset, let me praise the other members of the Northern District of Texas, and in particular, Chief Judge Reed O'Connor. They have picked up all of the cases that Judge Brown has not decided. These are very busy judges, and they have quietly assumed even more responsibilities to ensure the business of the court continues. Judge O'Connor has been routinely maligned by the press but he is a gracious and thoughtful member of his court who never seeks the spotlight. Indeed, it seems that Judge Brown has attacked Judge O'Connor, who has bent over backwards to help her. No good deed goes unpunished.
Moreover, I need to praise the leadership of Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod. She has given Judge Brown every possible benefit of the doubt and made the process as transparent as possible. I need to contrast Chief Judge Elrod's performance with that of Chief Judge Moore in the Federal Circuit. Judge Newman has been subjected to a stealth impeachment through arbitrary one-year suspensions, and only after nearly two years was the case reassigned to another circuit. Judge Brown has been given shorter suspensions after she refused to decide cases. She has had every opportunity to make her case.
Now, onto the substance. There seems to be something seriously wrong with Judge Brown. Her behavior in court that has been reported in the press is extremely troubling. Her refusal to decide cases seems to be an abdication of her responsibility as a federal judge. And her unwillingness to participate in any disciplinary proceedings suggests something is amiss. I will hold off on opining on these issues in more depth, as I suspect more facts will come out.
Here, I want to focus on Judge Brown's behavior in court that gave rise to an ethics complaint earlier this year. Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law, who has her finger on the pulse of the Fifth Circuit, offers the stunning details. Here is a summary:
A lawyer's misconduct complaint against US District Judge Ada Brown stemmed from a hearing during which she repeatedly directed racial insults at him, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg Law.
Attorney Ezra Young, who has represented a Black woman professor suing over a tenure denial, filed a complaint against Brown following the April 2026 hearing in Dallas, he confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg Law. Young's complaint and the judge's formal response were among the documents that Brown circulated in an Oct. 17 email to lawyers, judges, and members of the media.
Throughout the hearing, the judge, a Black woman with Native American ancestry, accused Young of mistreating Black attorneys, took "judicial notice" of her own background in making findings against Young, and repeatedly referred to Young, who is Latino, as being White. Brown called the hearing months after she revoked Young's ability to practice in her courtroom to weigh whether the lawyer should face sanctions.
"I think what's happening here, quite candidly, is you are very intimidated for some reason, Mr. Young, with Black excellence, in light of your White mediocrity. Yeah. Right?," Brown said, according to the transcript. "You should write that down. I mean, you — I'm — you look like a White man, right?"
"I'm not White, Your Honor," Young replied, adding that he's Latino.
"Well, you are White-presenting; is that fair to say?" Brown said, according to the transcript. Young said that he's "fair-skinned," and Brown said that Young had "White privilege" when he argued his client didn't receive key evidence in the case.
"You're the White savior, come to save all the stupid Black lawyers in Texas who need your help, from New York," Brown later said, according to the transcript. . . .
During the April 24, 2026 hearing, Brown accused Young of "racial bullying" toward Black attorneys in the case.
Brown also said that Young was acting like a "Chad," a term Young wasn't familiar with. The judge said it was the male version of a "Karen." "It's someone who calls the manager when they don't get their way. They stomp their foot when the rules are supposed to apply to them, right?" Brown said, according to the transcript. . . .
During the April hearing, Brown took issue with an article headline describing the case when it went before the Supreme Court of Texas. The article quoted a brief filed by Young that referenced another law professor apparently comparing what happened in the tenure denial to a "lynching."
The judge accused Young of making up that quote to "get a headline."
"And so when I read a headline — a sensationalized, very racialized headline that says, 'it's like I've been lynched,' and it's literally got no connection to this case, I have to ask you, Mr. Social Media, Main Character Chad, White Hero, Savior, Loves to Help Black People Be An Ally, where the lynching in this case came from?" Brown said, according to the transcript.
She also apparently gave Young a copy of a 1920 newspaper article that described a lynching. "So we don't find lynching jokes funny down here, sir," Brown said, according to the transcript.
The implication of Young's defense is that a Latino person cannot be racist against African Americans. That claim is wrong on its face, even under the misguided intersectionality pyramid. The bigger problem is that Young, a lifelong liberal, is unaccustomed to being called a racist.
Toward the end of the hearing, Young said that Brown seemed to be "using vicious stereotypes about White people, when I've repeatedly disclosed to this Court I am Latino."
He said that it appeared that Brown "is trying to tar and feather me for anti-Black animus, that has never been raised by anyone but this Court," according to the transcript.
"This Black woman?" Brown replied.
"No, Your Honor. This Court," Young responded.
Young later said he was "concerned that this Court has made light of my actual work as a civil rights lawyer." Brown asked Young what he has done for Black people, as she viewed his actions in the case toward Black attorneys as "abuse."
Young said he has gone "out of my way" to support the work of Black professors and others. When he described his interest in representing the plaintiff in the case, Brown cut him off.
"Can I pause and just tell you, I appreciate, on behalf of Black people, your White saviordom," Brown said.
"Your Honor, again, I'm not White," Young replied.
This is Ezra Young.
I'll let other people decide how "White presenting" Young is. Young has taught a class titled "Critical Race Theory, and Transgender People and the Law" at Cornell Law School. Young's scholarship "explores the rights of trans persons and is situated in the nascent field of critical trans theory." Young served as board secretary of the African American Policy Forum and was a founding board member of the National Trans Bar Association. Young's post doctoral studies focused on trans rights, Critical Race Theory, and intersectionality and were supervised by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Young is Admitted to practice in the Chickasaw Nation. In what universe can Judge Brown possibly claim Young is some sort of "white savior" who is hostile to black litigants?
Some people may be shocked at what Judge Ada Brown said in court, but the truth is that she is parroting standard dogma from Anti-Racists and Critical Racial Theorists. The charges may be completely absurd for someone like Ezra Young, but imagine the black plaintiff was represented by a white lawyer. Would that person be a "White Savior"? Think of the most famous white lawyer in American literature. Could even Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird be derided as a "White Savior"? Yes.
Welcome to the world of academia.
In 2015, Law Professor Osamudia R. James wrote an essay in the New York Times, titled Now We Can Finally Say Goodbye to the White Savior Myth of Atticus. Here is an excerpt:
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