Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas has been suspended pending psychiatric testing and the resolution of a bar complaint after a bizarre hearing in April 2026. In the hearing, Brown, a Trump appointee, went on a racial diatribe against a lawyer, Ezra Young, over his race. Young was accused of being White. When Young informed her that he is Hispanic, Judge Brown went on to say that he is “white-presenting” in continuing her racial browbeating.
Judge Brown was also accused of abandoning her work, but the hearing has caused the most chatter among lawyers.
Young filed a complaint against Brown following the hearing in Dallas. In the hearing, Brown, a Black woman with Native American ancestry, accused Young of mistreating Black attorneys. She barred Young from practicing in her courtroom after an unhinged tongue-lashing.
It appears Young, a Columbia Law School graduate and solo practitioner, has had previous run-ins with Judge Brown. At the hearing, Brown accused Young of “racial bullying” toward Black attorneys in the case.
Judge Brown apparently had an axe to grind over an article that appeared in an earlier case involving a black professor. Brown referenced an article that quoted a brief filed by Young that referenced another law professor apparently comparing what happened in the tenure denial to a “lynching.”
She accused Young of making up the 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?”
According to the transcript, she observed, “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?… You should write that down. I mean, you — I’m — you look like a White man, right?”
Young tried to stop the unfolding disaster: “I’m not White, Your Honor.”
Judge Brown snapped back, “Well, you are White-presenting; is that fair to say?” She added that he is “fair-skinned” and evidenced “White privilege”: “You’re the White savior, come to save all the stupid Black lawyers in Texas who need your help, from New York.”
Judge Brown is reportedly suffering from a “mental condition that interferes with her ability to perform the responsibilities of her office.”
It is likely the sad end to a distinguished career. Brown graduated magna cum laude from Spelman College in 1996, then earned a law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1999 and later a Master of Laws from Duke University School of Law.
Sad that a Trump appointment went south. She probably suffers from some mental-health disability, and I wish her well, but the bench is not the place for her anymore. We should leave bizarre outbursts to the pros, like George the troll and his multiple-personality disorder.
You know, oddly enough, this story gives me some peace of mind.
How often do we read one of Turley’s stories about outrageous conduct by someone in authority, only to find ourselves wondering why in the hell that person is still in office? Then we spend the next hundred comments arguing about why nobody is doing anything.
But here, somebody actually did something. The judge has been taken off her cases, an evaluation has been ordered, and the matter is being investigated.
We don’t know how it will ultimately turn out, and she’s entitled to due process.
But isn’t this what we expect from a functioning system? Identify the problem, take appropriate action, investigate, and reach a determination.
For once, I’m more interested in the fact that the accountability process is working than in the outrageous behavior that triggered it.
Don’t read anything into it. I suspect she has a history; the authorities had no choice. And most importantly – it’s TEXAS. They don’t fart around.
😁 You tell me not to read anything into it, then immediately speculate that she has a history, the authorities had no choice, and Texas doesn’t fart around.
So apparently reading something into it is fine, provided it’s you doing the reading.
That’s pretty funny.
Why do the Texas Bar think that mental illness is the explanation for the judge’s behavior?
Her history, which is not being reported. And what were you suggesting, its political?
Obviously this woman has major intellectual deficiencies and emotional issues, and should never have been made a judge. Unfortunately, the judiciary is riddled with judges and justices who match that description, and ridding Texas of her bench bologna would only constitute a very, very tiny crumb removed from a huge manure pile, assuming that the system is capable of taking even that negligible step.
Did you read the article, she’s has a fine resume, unlike the commenters here. She stepped over the line. She has to go.
I don’t think a psychiatric exam and evaluation is going to solve her problem. Psychiatrists are physicians, not gods or magicians.
GEB
I am paraphrasing Agatha Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot, who warns his adversary in Death on the Nile, “Don’t let hate into your heart, or it will make a home there.” Poor Judge Ada Brown has done exactly that, devolving to the point where she is now suspended for cause. Her condition reveals that, for some, “whiteness” has come to signify the actual tone of your skin rather than your race. Also, her previous encounters with this guy should have been a caution sign, not a license to attack.
The race problem in America is still in full bloom. No light at the end of this tunnel.
It’s not a race problem, it’s unchecked, uncontrollable female hormones running rampant in court rooms, judges as well as juries. Society is worse off for that.
Bah haha – just goes to show the Nose Pinching that goes on when judges are selected by politicians on both sides. Most don’t recognize when they have a PIG IN THE POKE like this little Missy Illuminati! What an idiot for a judge.
Idiot? Look at her resume. That’s not an idiot on the bench. Do you even have any comparable?
The most racist thing today is hatred for white people because they are white.
Considering the wackjobs in black robes that are surfacing these ‘daze’, psychological screening or personality profiling should become a universal requirement for appointment to the bench.
But she’s a Trump appointee. Don’t apply your obvious ignorance and stupidity to all situations.
“psychological screening or personality profiling should become a universal requirement for appointment to the bench”
How much confidence do you have that such a requirement could (would) not be surreptitiously twisted to suit a particular political end, leaving us without a real solution, and one more layer of bureaucracy? I have none.
Brown, a Black woman with Native American ancestry,… another untouchable?
“Brown, a Black woman with Native American ancestry,… another untouchable?’
Imagine if she were Jewish as well. These ‘daze’, that would nullify your conclusion, wouldn’t it. She’d be fair game for some.
But she’s not Jewish. Hypotheticals are an obvious sign of an unmitigated stupidity.
Black, female, Indigenous. She could also be a Trans lesbian. Then she could head up the DNC.
No, POTUS!
For cryin’ out loud: Brown should just resign and start her own ambulance chaser firm.