There is so much to say about LULAC v. Abbott, the recent gerrymandering case decided by a three judge panel of the Western District of Texas. Indeed, it has taken me a few days to process everything.
First, this three-judge panel was constituted back in 2021. Due to long-running litigation over Texas's 2021 maps, this panel maintained jurisdiction over the new 2025 maps. The plaintiffs chose to file in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, where they were virtually assured of not drawing a conservative judge. And they drew Judge David Guaderrama, an Obama nominee. Then-Chief Judge Priscilla (Owen) Richman, not the current Chief Judge, Jennifer Walker Elrod, appointed the other two members of the panel: District Judge Jeffrey Brown and Circuit Judge Jerry Smith.
Second, virtually every press story about the case has highlighted the fact that Judge Brown was appointed by President Trump. Indeed, Trump nominated Brown to fill a single-judge division on Galveston Island, just outside of Houston. But unlike some of the other judges appointed to single-judge divisions, Brown did not become a go-to forum for strategic litigation during the Biden years. Quite to the contrary, he put up a "Do Not Enter" sign on his courtroom. In 2023, Judge Brown adopted a local rule that required the plaintiffs to demonstrate an "obvious factual nexus to the Galveston Division." In the wake of this order, conservative litigants got the memo loud and clear, and stopped filing there. And Brown's rulings have not always fared well before the Fifth Circuit. His VRA ruling in Petteway v. Galveston County was reversed by the en banc court.
