Texas Judge in Boeing, ESG Cases Known for High-Profile Docket

The Texas federal judge who ruled against using environmental, social, and governance factors in American Airlines Group Inc. employee retirement accounts is no stranger to hot-button political issues, from Obamacare to gun control and transgender rights.

The Fort Worth courtroom of US District Judge Reed O’Connor, who is also overseeing a criminal case against Boeing Co. over 737 Max crashes, has for years drawn litigants championing conservative causes. As a result, the George W. Bush-appointee has weighed in on disputes on their way to the US Supreme Court.

Over the past decade, he’s tackled challenges to the Affordable Care Act, regulations over ghost guns, and Covid-19 vaccine mandates that have all reached the high court.

“Most district judges go their entire career without having a Supreme Court case. Judge O’Connor seems to have one every year,” said Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.

O’Connor ruled Jan. 10 that American broke the law by incorporating investments in employee retirement accounts that advance ESG. The decision could have far-reaching effects for investment managers.

Last month, the former prosecutor rejected a plea deal between Boeing and the Biden administration, citing a provision requiring race to be considered in the selection of an independent monitor, among other concerns.

Some prominent cases have landed in his courtroom because of a practice known as “judge shopping.” That’s when litigants file challenges in a court where they believe they’ll be assigned a judge favorable to their arguments.

The Northern District of Texas, where O’Connor sits, has come under particular scrutiny for the practice, given that its case assignment structure allows litigants to effectively choose which judge they receive by filing in a specific division.

O’Connor and Trump appointee Mark Pittman are the two active judges in the Fort Worth division, and O’Connor also is the only active judge hearing cases in the district’s Wichita Falls division.

“He’s a very conservative judge, and there are lots of conservative judges. But he gets a significant share of high-profile matters because litigants shop cases for his court,” Blackman said. “The fact is, had he been a federal judge appointed in Dallas or Houston, you’d probably never have heard of him.”

O’Connor has been critical of efforts by the judiciary to curb judge shopping. Speaking at a Federalist Society event in Fort Worth in September, O’Connor said the judiciary’s guidance encouraging courts to randomly assign certain cases stemmed from “external political criticism” and would’ve imposed access-to-justice burdens on residents.

O’Connor declined through a chambers representative to be interviewed for this article.

Guns, Health Care

Alice Clapman, senior counsel for the progressive Brennan Center for Justice, described O’Connor as “one of the more conservative federal judges in our system,” and noted he’d been reversed by the Supreme Court in some major cases.

His decisions on health care and gun control have allowed him to shape, at least for a time, national policy in those areas.

O’Connor drew headlines in 2018 when he struck down the Affordable Care Act. The ruling was reversed by the US Supreme Court, which found states didn’t have grounds to challenge the law.

O’Connor later blocked an Obamacare requirement that health plans fully cover the cost of certain preventive health care services, including drugs to prevent HIV. The Supreme Court agreed Jan. 10 to take up that case.

His rulings have also taken aim at federal gun control efforts. Last year, O’Connor struck down a ban on forced reset triggers that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire faster, following the high court’s ruling against the federal ban on bump stocks. And the year before, he blocked a regulation over so-called ghost guns, or firearms without serial numbers. The Supreme Court has paused that ruling while it considers the case.

He’s also handled challenges to transgender policies, including blocking an Obama-era directive that public schools allow transgender students to use the bathroom matching their gender identity.

O’Connor initially was assigned litigation over Elon Musk’s X. Corp, but he recused himself without explanation last year following reporting that he owned stock in Tesla Inc., also owned by Musk.

Senate Roots

Before taking the bench in 2007, O’Connor was detailed by the Justice Department to serve as chief counsel to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and as counsel for the late Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), then the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He previously held roles as assistant US attorney for the Northern District of Texas and as assistant district attorney for Texas’ Tarrant County, according to materials provided by O’Connor’s chambers.

Caroline Harrison, an officer for the Tarrant County Bar Association, which includes Fort Worth, described O’Connor as “even-keeled in his demeanor,” approachable, and “methodical” in his rulings.

“Not every judge is going to explain why they’re making an evidentiary ruling. And when it comes to significantly challenging rulings, he seems to be willing to do that,” Harrison said.

Cornyn described O’Connor at his confirmation hearing as “somebody who works well with others—not always easy for lawyers—no matter what their walk of life, and treats everyone with fairness and respect.” He also touted O’Connor’s work negotiating legislation across the aisle. The American Bar Association rated him “unanimously well-qualified” when he was nominated.

O’Connor “has operated with integrity and demonstrated a deep respect for the rule of law,” Cornyn said in a statement on Tuesday.