A federal judge who is set to hear the case against mifepristone or
the abortion pill did not get sworn in in a public building.
In fact, he was sworn in in the library of billionaire mega donor Harlan Crow.
And the fact that he has such cozy ties to Harlan Crow should be a concern,
considering Harlan Crow is a republic mega donor.
This judge gets sworn in in his library, his private library.
And this is one of the judges in a three judge panel for
the Fifth Circuit who will make a decision about whether
mifepristone should be blocked for the rest of the country.
Meaning, women who rely on that pill or who might need that pill in order to have
a medical abortion would not be able to do so.
So ProPublica journalist Justin Elliott, who has been reporting on the Crow's and
the corruption that they're involved in with supreme court justice
Clarence Thomas, recently resurfaced an image that I wanna show you.
So if you take a look at this tweet, he writes a detail from our story today.
Ted Cruz tweeted this photo of Clarence Thomas swearing in
Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho.
Turns out this is in the billionaire Harlan Crow's private library.
And flight records show Crow's jet dispatched to DC and
back to Dallas before and after the event.
So let me just say that fireplace is massive.
>> [LAUGH] >> No, look, guys,
it looks like some sort of movie where there's a rich villain.
It's almost like a James Bond movie.
And he takes you to his den where there's this massive fireplace where
obviously someone will be ritually sacrificed later in the evening.
>> It looks like Downton Abbey.
It looks like they went to the set of Downton Abbey to do the swearing in
ceremony.
>> Now, look, guys, we're gonna get back to the substance,
which is super important.
But one more fun thing, it also gives me a little get out vibe,
like, hey, Clarence, come to our retreat in this fancy
place with a lot of rich people, everything's gonna be okay.
[LAUGH] Okay, maybe Clarence Thomas reached out to this Judge Ho at some point
when there was a flashlight taken, get out, okay?
[LAUGH] But neither one of them did, and
they're doing exactly what Harlan Crow wants now.
>> That's exactly right.
So let's get back to the FDA mifepristone case, because that's where James Ho,
this fairly new judge for the Fifth Circuit comes in.
And again, he's part of a three judge panel that will hear that case and
make a decision about that case.
Before we learn more about Ho and what his political leanings happen to be,
which I'm sure you can already take a guess, let's do a refresher
on what the case is involving the FDA's approval of mifepristone.
>> A conservative federal judge in Texas ruled Friday that the FDA
improperly approved the abortion pill mifepristone 23 years ago,
ignoring legitimate safety concerns about the drug.
>> The order yesterday was all about righting or wrong.
>> Mifepristone is one of two approved pills that are used together to carry out
more than half of legal abortions in this country.
The FDA insists the drug is safe and that serious complications are rare,
as administration officials warned that the legal battle in Texas could have far
reaching implications.
>> When you turn upside down the entire FDA approval process, you're not talking
about just mifepristone, you're talking about every kind of drug.
>> So now the Department of justice is challenging that Texas judge's
decision on blocking access to mifepristone because, in his words,
the FDA did not do its due diligence in approving the drug and
that the drug is allegedly unsafe, it's all nonsense.
This is an activist judge who was appointed by Donald Trump.
But the problem is, two of the judges in the Fifth Circuit, where that decision
is facing appeal, happen to be Trump appointees who are also activist judges.
And the third judge is also a bit of an issue.
So we'll talk about the other two in just a moment, but
let's talk about James Ho here, right?
So, James Ho doesn't have a great history, if you want to maintain and protect
reproductive rights in this country, his biases are pretty significant.
So he was nominated by Donald Trump to serve in the Fifth District.
He has written some pretty aggressive conservative opinions on all things having
to do with reproductive rights.
For instance, in a 2019 concurring opinion,
Ho said that a trial judge's ruling which struck down a 15 week abortion ban and
which was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit under the then standing row precedent.
Displayed an alarming disrespect for the millions of Americans who believe that
babies deserve legal protection during pregnancy as well as after birth, and
that abortion is the immoral, tragic and violent taking of innocent human life.
So his views on abortion are very clear.
At the risk of going off on too large a tangent,
his thoughts on government corruption are also pretty terrible.
For instance, Ho's first opinion was a dissent in a case involving
limits on campaign contributions in Austin, Texas.
Candidates for municipal elections, meaning people like mayors and
city council representatives who represent fewer than 100,000 people,
are barred from accepting donations more than $350.
Crow seems to have a problem with this, okay?
So a three judge panel on the appeals court upheld the ordinance, and
a majority of judges on the court voted to keep it that way, but not Ho.
Ho took a different approach,
pending a 13 page dissent arguing the full court should hear the dispute.
Ho said the contribution limit violated the First Amendment.
So he's one of these guys who believes in unlimited campaign donations in all
elections, including local elections in places like Dallas, I'm sorry,
Austin, Texas.
>> So understand how important that is,
because that's exactly what allows Harlan Crow to buy all the politicians.
So you say, but wait, these guys aren't politicians, they're judges.
Exactly, you need the judges to say it's okay to bribe the politicians.
So he bribes the judges so that he can bribe the politicians,
it is kind of brilliant.
Now, to be fair, Harlan Crow didn't come up with that system back in 1971.
Lewis Powell did and Richard Nixon did, that's a long story that's in my book,
justice is coming.
Now back to H0, on abortion, Ana, I do have to disagree with you.
Now, those are his personal opinions.
I'm sure that he's gonna keep that out of his decisions,
because I hear in confirmation hearings all the time from judges and
eventually justices, that they just call balls and strike.
>> Right.
>> And they don't have their own political opinions affect their decisions at all.
Now, as it turns out, magically, miraculously, all of their opinions happen
to be based on exactly their political opinions on the Supreme Court and
lower than the Supreme Court in all of the court system,
including the one that Judge Ho is in the lower courts.
But it's just a coincidence, a total coincidence, so
I'm sure that he'll be fair in this issue.
No, of course not, he's going to rule against the pill.
Everybody knows him,
everybody knows that at least two out of the three are gonna vote against it.
>> I think this is such an interesting case, though, Cenk,
because this is a rare situation in which these conservative activist
judges need to choose between their so-called conservative values and
their absolute love for corporate power.
Because the Texas federal judge's ruling in blocking the FDA's approval
of mifepristone has an impact on all other prescription drugs, right?
That threatens all other prescription drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies, they don't like this.
>> So we talked about this before, and that was gonna get to my last point,
which is that, look, this Fifth Circuit panel is not just deeply right wing,
but fundamentalist and
has a history of being caring a lot about religious fundamentalism, right?
But we talked about how the Supreme Court and other courts, no matter how
conservative they are, at the end of the day, will rule actually on our side.
Why? Cuz they've all of a sudden found
a conscious?
No, cuz their side is not necessarily the Republican side or
the right wing side, it is the corporate side.
So when the drug companies say, you will not mess with our
already wonderfully corrupt system that we have going on at the FDA,
where they approve whatever the hell we tell them to approve, okay, all those
judges will go scurrying back to their corporate bosses, including Harlan Crow.
And so I don't know Harlan Crow's religious views, but if he's like most
right wing businessmen, that is a four second fiddle to his business interests.
>> That's exactly right.
I mean, that wood for that massive fireplace, not cheap, not cheap.
>> No. >> Okay, and finally,
I do wanna make sure you guys are fully aware and
informed on who the other two judges are on that panel.
Look, and this is why it's so frustrating that Diane Feinstein continues to be
a problem for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Because without her participation, it is difficult to confirm federal judges,
which we obviously need to do while Democrats are in charge in the Senate.
And we have, of course, Biden appointing federal judges.
With that said, though, here's what the Fifth Circuit looks like.
You have James Ho and then you have this.
The other two judges on the panel are Trump appointee Cory Wilson, who voted for
a six-week abortion ban as a Mississippi state lawmaker.
And George W Bush appointee, or nominee, I should say,
Jennifer Elrod, who said Obamacare was a fraud on the American people.
So they're very conservative judges.
And conservative judges,
I think all judges happen to be activist judges, let's keep it real.
>> Yeah. >> Let's stop lying to ourselves.
So this isn't a comment specifically for right wing judges.
Judges are activist judges, they have biases just like anyone else.
But in this case, this particular court, the Fifth Circuit is deeply
conservative and very likely will uphold the Texas judge's decision on the FDA.
We'll see how it plays out.
>> So, look, especially the last two wrinkles here,
especially in cases where evidence is not that important.
You're talking about judicial philosophy as opposed to, like,
a who done it, did this happen or did that happen?
So even with Trump appointees, when they were given the 60 some odd
cases that Trump and his allies brought after the 2020 election,
the judges were forced to say, yes, but where's your evidence?
This is a courtroom, you have to present exhibits and evidence, and
we're super happy to hear it.
So where's the evidence of fraud?
And Giuliani and the other lawyers said, on the record, we have no evidence, right?
And so that's why Trump can lose those cases.
But when it comes to a question of, can a judge overrule the FDA?
Well, that's just a judicial question, and they can go any direction they like
with that, then they will choose whatever they want.
This particular fiscal panel happens to be such religious fundamentalists.
Based on their history,
it would be surprising if they didn't rule against the abortion pill.
But like I told you, at the end of the day,
the corporate goons are the ones in charge, and Ana is absolutely right.
Roe V Wade, if you're my real opinion, and one I've said all throughout
these 21 years we've been on the air in the Young Turks, even though I think
Roe was an excellent piece of legislation, unfortunately, it wasn't legislation.
And I think that it was activist judges that said yes to Roe, okay?
From the left, having said that,
Citizens United is activist judges from the right that legalize bribery.
And they did it in other cases as well, that's the heart of my book.
And that's the number one problem, which is that activists, in fact, right wing,
came up with the idea of activist judges to take over the court so
that they could institute corporate rule.
And that's a literal memo.
And like I said, I write about an injustice is coming.
>> Yeah, I mean, that's the whole reason why the Federalist Society exists,
that's the whole point.