# James C. Ho

James Chiun-Yue Ho (Chinese: 何俊宇; pinyin: Hé Jùnyǔ; born February 27, 1973) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2018 as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by President Donald Trump, becoming the Fifth Circuit's only Asian-American judge and the only judge to be an immigrant.
Born to Taiwanese American immigrants, Ho immigrated from Taiwan as a child and graduated from Stanford University and the University of Chicago Law School. He served as the Solicitor General of Texas from 2008 to 2010, becoming the first Asian-American to hold the position. He has been identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee for Donald Trump's second term.

## Early life and education

Ho was born on February 27, 1973, in Taipei, Taiwan, to So-Hwa and Steve Song-Shan Ho. His father was a doctor who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology. The Taiwanese American family immigrated to the United States when Ho was a child, moving first to Long Island before settling in San Marino, California. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen at age nine.
Ho was educated at the Polytechnic School, a rigorous private school in Pasadena, where he became the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Paw Print. He was a high school classmate of Leondra Kruger, who later became a judge of the Supreme Court of California. Ho volunteered as an actor and dancer for school plays and briefly served as a football lineman. A classmate described Ho as "super-intense; he walked fast, laid out pages fast, and drove too fast, in a Ford Probe".
After high school, Ho studied public policy at Stanford University, where he wrote for The Stanford Daily and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors. From 1995 to 1996, Ho was a California Senate Fellow at California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a legislative aide to California state legislator Quentin L. Kopp. He then attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review, joined the Federalist Society, and also served as an editor for The Green Bag.
In 1998, Ho served as the executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. He earned his Juris Doctor degree with high honors and membership in the Order of the Coif from the University of Chicago in 1999. Upon graduation, the law school awarded him its Ann Watson Barber Outstanding Service Award, given for "exceptional contributions to the quality of life at the Law School".

## Career

After graduating from law school, Ho was a law clerk to Fifth Circuit judge Jerry Edwin Smith from 1999 to 2000. He then was in private practice in Washington, D.C., at the law firm Gibson Dunn from 2000 to 2001. He assisted Gibson Dunn partner Theodore Olson with his representation of George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore. From 2001 to 2003, Ho was an attorney at the United States Department of Justice, first in the Civil Rights Division in 2001 and then in the Office of Legal Counsel from 2001–2003. He was chief counsel to subcommittees of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2003 to 2005 under Republican Senator John Cornyn. From 2005 to 2006, Ho was a law clerk to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.
After his Supreme Court clerkship, Ho returned to private practice at Gibson Dunn in its Dallas office from 2006 to 2008 and 2010 to 2017. From 2008 to 2010, he was the Solicitor General of Texas in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, replacing Ted Cruz in that position. As Texas solicitor general, Ho led the state's lawsuits against the Obama administration.
Ho has worked as a volunteer attorney with the First Liberty Institute, a religious legal advocacy organization. He has held multiple positions as a member of the Federalist Society since 1996.

### Federal judicial service

On September 28, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Ho as a United States circuit judge to an undetermined seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Cruz had promoted Ho as a candidate for a vacancy on the court. On October 16, 2017, Trump sent Ho's nomination to the Senate. He was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge Carolyn Dineen King, who assumed senior status on December 31, 2013. On November 15, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On December 7, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On December 13, 2017, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 53–44 vote. On December 14, 2017, Ho's nomination was confirmed by a 53–43 vote. He received his judicial commission on January 4, 2018. He was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas at the private library of Texan real estate billionaire and Republican donor Harlan Crow.
On September 9, 2020, Trump included Ho on a list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed. Ho has again been identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee should Donald Trump be reelected in 2024. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) stated in June 2024 that he believes Ho "has done a terrific job on the 5th [Circuit]" and that Ho is "principled" and "will be immune to the Greenhouse effect.” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has also expressed support for Ho's elevation to the Supreme Court. Ho was named to the shortlist of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
On September 29, 2022, Ho delivered a speech at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky and said he would no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School, which he said was plagued by "cancel culture" and students disrupting conservative speakers. Ho said Yale "not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it.", and he urged other judges to likewise boycott the school. U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth L. Branch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed her participation in the Yale boycott in a statement to National Review. Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future.
On May 6, 2024, Ho cosigned a letter alongside twelve federal judges, which he shared with CNN, vowing not to hire Columbia University law students or undergraduates for concerns that the university is not doing enough to counter students protesting the war in Gaza. Ho asked in the letter that the university should identify "students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them. If not, employers are forced to assume the risk that anyone they hire from Columbia may be one of these disruptive and hateful students."
Ho has been outspoken against illegal immigration, suggesting “a sovereign isn’t a sovereign if it can't control its borders” and that “[o]ur national objectives are undercut when states encourage illegal entry into the United States.” He has stated that “[i]f only ‘the political branches of the federal government’ can decide if a state has been invaded, it effectively prohibits states from exercising their sovereign right of self-defense without federal permission.” Ho has also defended the use of the term “alien,” arguing it should not be seen as offensive, noting that “[i]t’s a centuries-old legal term found in countless judicial decisions.”

### Notable opinions

On April 18, 2018, in his first written opinion as a Fifth Circuit judge, Ho dissented from a denial of a rehearing en banc in a case regarding a limit on campaign contributions. The Fifth Circuit three-judge panel upheld the constitutionality of a City of Austin ordinance setting an individual campaign contribution limit of $350 per election for candidates for mayor and city council, rejecting the plaintiff's claim that the limit violated the First Amendment. In his dissent, Ho argued the court "should have granted rehearing en banc and held that the Austin contribution limit violates the First Amendment" and asserted that "if there is too much money in politics, it's because there's too much government."
In 2020, Ho was a member of a panel that stayed a preliminary injunction entered by U.S. District Judge Samuel Frederick Biery Jr. that expanded the right to use a mail-in ballot to all Texas voters during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (allowing broader use of mail-in voting than under the Texas Election Code, which entitled only Texas voters over age 65 to vote absentee without an excuse). Ho wrote a separate concurring opinion favoring the state officials.
On September 9, 2021, Ho authored the majority opinion for an en banc panel in Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, interpreting a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Ho was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion authored by Justice Elena Kagan.

## Personal life

Ho is married to Allyson Paix Newton Ho (née Newton, formerly Heidelbaugh), a partner in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chair of the firm's appellate practice group. Ho met Allyson Newton when he was a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith in Houston, Texas, and Newton had been a law student working for a Houston firm. They married on April 17, 2004. Newton earned a Ph.D. in English from Rice University and served as a law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. She has argued four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. They have twin children, a daughter and son.

## Selected publications

* Ho, James C. (2000). "Misunderstood Precedent: Andrew Jackson and the Real Case against Censure". Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. 24 (1): 283–307. ProQuest 235185777.
* Ho, James C. (2000). "Unnatural Born Citizens and Acting Presidents". Immigration and Nationality Law Review. 17: 575–585.
* Ho, James C.; Yoo, John C. (August 27, 2003). "The Status of Terrorists". Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (136). Vanderbilt Law School: 1–20. SSRN 438123.
* Ho, James C. (Winter 2003). "International Law and the Liberation of Iraq". Texas Review of Law & Politics. 8 (2): 79–89.
* Ho, James C. (Summer 2004). "Ensuring the Continuity of Government in Times of Crisis: An Analysis of the On Going Debate in Congress". Catholic University Law Review. 53 (4): 1049–1072.
* Ho, James C. (Summer 2006). "Defining "American": Birthright Citizenship and the Original Understanding of the 14th Amendment" (PDF). The Green Bag. 9 (4): 366–378.
* Ho, James C. (Fall 2007). "Birthright Citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Texas Legislature". Texas Review of Law & Politics. 12 (1): 161–167.
* Ho, James C. (March 1, 2008). "Birthright Citizenship, The Fourteenth Amendment, and State Authority" (PDF). University of Richmond Law Review. Allen Chair Symposium 2008: Immigration in the Twenty-First Century: Perspectives on Law and Policy. 42 (4).