Our colleague Aaron Walker calls this story a "train headed toward crazytown." And he may mean that literally.
We missed this on Wednesday when Bloomberg Law first reported on US District Judge Ada Brown, who faces a potential removal from the bench and an order to seek a psychiatric assessment after a racial tirade against a Hispanic attorney. Brown accused Ezra Young of acting like a "white savior," using a "Pikachu face" in court, referred to him as "Chad" (an apparent reference to whiteness) rather than his actual name, and then disqualified him from acting pro hac vice in a case.
It's crazytown, all right, and perhaps Brown's last stop on the crazy train of her career as a judge:
Throughout the hearing, the judge, a Black woman with Native American ancestry, accused Young of mistreating Black attorneys, took “judicial notice” of her own background in making findings against Young, and repeatedly referred to Young, who is Latino, as being White. Brown called the hearing months after she revoked Young’s ability to practice in her courtroom to weigh whether the lawyer should face sanctions.
“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?,” Brown said, according to the transcript. “You should write that down. I mean, you — I’m — you look like a White man, right?”
“I’m not White, Your Honor,” Young replied, adding that he’s Latino.
“Well, you are White-presenting; is that fair to say?” Brown said, according to the transcript. Young said that he’s “fair-skinned,” and Brown said that Young had “White privilege” when he argued his client didn’t receive key evidence in the case.
“You’re the White savior, come to save all the stupid Black lawyers in Texas who need your help, from New York,” Brown later said, according to the transcript.
How did this all begin? Let me explain – er ...
Well, let me have Aaron offer some context instead. Be warned that it won't help much:
To put this in context, Judge Ada Brown serves in the Northern District of Texas. She self-identifies as black and Native American. Before you chalk this up to the judge just being a wild-eyed leftist, she was appointed by Trump, somehow, in 2019. We are not sure how to explain the jump from being a Trump appointee to this kind of behavior.
The other major player in the case is an attorney named Ezra Young. He represented a black woman in a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination at Southern Methodist University. So, for the record, he was hired by a black woman, to help her, in a case where she claimed to be facing racial discrimination. And, frankly, he himself seems to be pretty far to the left, though maybe not crossing the line into being a full-on 'leftist.'
Aaron would like to know how Brown ended up on Trump's list of potential judicial appointments. That might make for an interesting thread to tug, but we're already pretty far down the tracks on the Crazy Train, so let's keep our focus on the next station.
Brown then made a judicial "finding" that Young was, er ... problematic in several ways:
THE COURT: I find that you are a community narcissist. You're the main character. You're the White savior […] a raging hypocritical racist […] And it needs to be looked into. You acted like you were about to slide for O'Block. https://t.co/IdL8wT1MOn
— ../* (@dotdotslashstar) October 28, 2026
Click through to read the transcript images, or just click on Aaron's post, where he provides the text in an easier-to-read format. To make a long story short ...
I'm hip.
Needless to say, Young didn't appreciate the judicial findings in this case, let alone Brown's attempts to bounce him from it. He filed a complaint that led to an order for Brown to undergo a psychiatric assessment:
Young said he was “disgusted and mortified” by the suggestion of him having an anti-Black animus, and told Brown that he was concerned about her conduct during the hearing, according to the transcript.
Soon after, Young filed a formal complaint against Brown, saying he believed the judge may be suffering from a mental health condition. The complaint helped launch a judicial investigation that resulted in her temporarily losing her docket earlier this month.
A special judicial committee has ordered Brown to undergo a psychiatric examination as part of that investigation.
Jonathan Turley hasn't seen anything quite like this. He links to another complaint filed against Judge Brown that alleges she refuses to take cases assigned to her, and that Young is not her only target for hostile treatment:
A federal judge in Dallas has been accused of refusing to take cases, making racial insults to judges and court staff and abandoning her role, judicial investigators have found.
U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas is facing a judicial misconduct proceeding for allegedly mishandling her docket and treating other judges and court staff “in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner,” Bloomberg Law reports.
That is a separate report from Bloomberg Law that details the other allegations:
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.
Turley concludes:
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.
One suspects Turley is being generous with the adjective "distinguished." Mental illness certainly appears to be in play here, but one has to wonder whether this animus always animated her deliberations and that she's just lost the filters to hide it.
Stay tuned to see what happens next, but I suspect that we may not hear much after this. It's in everyone's best interest to stop talking about it, especially Brown's, but ... she doesn't seem likely to follow a rational course of action at this point, either.