A misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas followed an April 2026 sanctions hearing in Dallas at which she repeatedly called attorney Ezra Young, who is Latino, white and accused him of mistreating Black lawyers, according to a hearing transcript reported by Bloomberg Law. The complaint helped launch a Fifth Circuit investigation; Brown temporarily lost her docket and a special committee ordered a psychiatric examination. Brown denies wrongdoing.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 10-7 on October 23, 2026 that immigrants who entered the country without being admitted have no constitutional right to a bond hearing while detained during deportation proceedings, even if they are long-term residents. The decision in Sosnava Rodriguez v. Vergara reverses habeas rulings that freed three Texas men and backs the administration's no-bond detention policy in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
A Fifth Circuit panel on October 22, 2026, vacated U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate's preliminary injunction against Mississippi's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and universities, and ordered the case reassigned on remand. Writing for the panel, Judge Jerry Smith cited AI hallucinations in Wingate's temporary restraining order and said the court misapplied the Supreme Court's facial-challenge standard.
An October 20, 2026, order from the special committee investigating U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas for the Fifth Circuit judicial council says Brown emailed confidential investigation materials and sealed court documents to approximately 140 judges, lawyers and journalists. The order directs Brown to answer three written questions by October 27 and urges her to reconsider her refusal to take part in the misconduct proceedings.
The U.S. Supreme Court on October 19, 2026, affirmed by default a Fifth Circuit ruling that songwriter Cyril Vetter's U.S. copyright termination recaptured worldwide rights to "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)." Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson took no part, leaving five justices, short of the six-justice quorum. BMG's parent, Bertelsmann, also owns Penguin Random House, which has published books by all four.
The U.S. Supreme Court on October 19, 2026, granted the federal government's petition in Department of Justice v. McNutt, agreeing to decide whether an 1868 law banning the production of distilled spirits at home is a valid exercise of Congress's taxing power. The Fifth Circuit struck the ban down in a suit by the Hobby Distillers Association, while the Sixth Circuit upheld it in a separate case.