A committee of judicial investigators said that a federal judge in Dallas abandoned her role and recommended she be temporarily stripped of her docket, according to internal court documents shared with Bloomberg Law.

US District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas is facing a judicial misconduct proceeding over several allegations, including the mishandling of her docket and treating other judges and court staff “in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner,” those documents state.

A committee of judicial investigators found there’s a “reasonable basis” to believe Brown “suffers from a mental condition that currently interferes with her ability to perform the responsibilities of her office,” according to the documents.

Brown is declining to participate in the Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit proceedings against her, she said in an email early Saturday to investigators and court personnel that was viewed by Bloomberg Law.

Brown, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, is facing two judicial misconduct complaints, according to the documents. One was submitted by an attorney who appeared before the judge, and the second was identified by Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Elrod’s complaint and an order from the Fifth Circuit’s judicial council lay out the allegations and investigation into Brown, including Elrod’s creation of a judicial committee to examine the claims.

Elrod and Judge Reed O’Connor, the chief judge in the Northern District of Texas, didn’t immediately provide comment on Saturday. Brown didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Judicial Findings

The committee made its determination on Brown’s alleged mental condition based on 10 stated reasons. Those include Brown allegedly refusing to manage her docket, recusing from over 40 cases since June 1 giving no or “unusual” reasons, “making racial insults to judges and court staff,” sending “copious and bizarre emails to court staff and judges,” and refusing to meet with Elrod and O’Connor about her docket, according to the order.

Brown was ordered by the committee to undergo an independent psychiatric evaluation by Oct. 21, the council order said. The council reviews misconduct complaints against the circuit’s judges.

The committee also found that Brown “abandoned her post as a federal judge,” according to the order. The committee said Brown didn’t respond when asked when she planned to return to work.

Brown has issued nearly no orders since Aug. 10 in “protest” of a recusal letter not being docketed in a case that’s since been assigned to another judge, according to an order by Elrod.

Brown was told that the committee was recommending that her docket be temporarily removed from her, but the judge didn’t file a response, according to the council order.

Brown, who was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, graduated Spelman College in 1996 and Emory University School of Law in 1999. She worked as an assistant district attorney in Dallas and as a state court judge before her nomination by Trump in 2019.

Attorney Complaint

The attorney’s complaint alleges that Brown made inappropriate racial claims about him in court.

Brown in a written response viewed by Bloomberg Law denied any misconduct, but acknowledged that the way she communicated with the lawyer “might have been handled more delicately.” She also rejected a claim that she may be suffering from a mental issue.

“I would never want my actions to make anyone feel or fear I had a bias towards one race or another,” Brown said. “I am so proud of my Black, White, and Native ancestry. Equally. And I want everyone who comes in my court and to feel comfortable and feel treated with both kindness and courtesy.”

Brown is the first Black woman to serve as a district judge in the Northern District of Texas, and is one of few federal judges with Native American ancestry.

She’s a member of the Choctaw Nation through her mother, according to a 2021 article published on the federal judiciary’s website. She can also trace her ancestry through her father to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, but that tribe in 1979 revoked membership for former slaves, according to that article.

Elrod — who’s part of the investigating committee — identified her complaint against Brown in an Oct. 1 order, one day after the judicial council ordered that Brown temporarily stop hearing cases.

O’Connor on Oct. 5 transferred cases from Brown, and she’s no longer listed on the court’s case assignment order.

Elrod’s complaint states that there’s “probable cause” that Brown “treated other judges and judicial employees in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner.”

Elrod also found probable cause that Brown “created a hostile work environment” for court staff, repeatedly delayed issuing decisions and abandoned her docket, and refused to cooperate in the investigation of the attorney’s complaint, according to the order.

Brown twice said she would resign from the court but later rescinded, according to the order.

“The court is dedicated to ensuring a fair and impartial proceeding,” Elrod said in her order identifying the complaint. She said Brown would have due process as part of the proceeding, and that identifying a complaint “does not reflect an opinion on the underlying merits of the allegations” in it.

The investigating judges asked Brown to meet with them on Sept. 21 and to answer in writing several questions about her alleged conduct, according to the council order.

Brown didn’t attend that meeting, saying she was “advised by counsel to only give testimony under oath due to the parallel investigation into these matters,” the order said. Brown declined to tell the committee what other investigation she was referring to, which she also appeared to reference in her Saturday email to court personnel and investigators.

Brown also didn’t answer questions on concerns unrelated to her docket and turnover of her staff, according to the council order.