Notable opinions

On April 18, 2018, in his first written opinion as a Fifth Circuit judge, Ho dissented from a denial of a rehearing en banc in a case regarding a limit on campaign contributions. The Fifth Circuit three-judge panel upheld the constitutionality of a City of Austin ordinance setting an individual campaign contribution limit of $350 per election for candidates for mayor and city council, rejecting the plaintiff's claim that the limit violated the First Amendment. In his dissent, Ho argued the court "should have granted rehearing en banc and held that the Austin contribution limit violates the First Amendment" and asserted that "if there is too much money in politics, it's because there's too much government."^[20][21][22]

Ho described abortion as a "moral tragedy" in one of his rulings which upheld a Texan law that required abortion facilities to bury or cremate fetal remains.^[23]

In 2019, Ho authored a concurring opinion in the Mississippi abortion case Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs, 945 F.3d 265 (2019), criticizing the lower court for failing to respect the State's arguments in support of the Mississippi Gestational Age Act. This case later went to the Supreme Court and was the occasion for Justice Alito's 2022 opinion that declared Roe v. Wade and Casey overruled.

In 2020, Ho was a member of a panel that stayed a preliminary injunction entered by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery that expanded the right to use a mail-in ballot to all Texas voters during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (allowing broader use of mail-in voting than under the Texas Election Code, which entitled only Texas voters over age 65 to vote absentee without an excuse). Ho wrote a separate concurring opinion favoring the state officials.^{[24][25][26][27][28]}

In 2020, Ho wrote a concurring opinion in another voting rights case, involving a challenge to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's order restricting the number of drop-off locations for mail-in ballot to one per county. Abbott's order closed dozens of drop-off locations in populous, heavily Democratic urban areas in Texas. The order was challenged by civil rights groups, and the district court held that the order violated the constitutional right to vote. Ho joined a Fifth Circuit order that stayed the district court's ruling and held that the governor's order did not infringe the right to vote. In a concurring opinion, Ho wrote that Texas election law should not be "rewritten" by "executive fiat" or "judicial fiat."^[29][30][31]

In April 2020, Ho wrote a dissent when the Fifth Circuit refused to rehear en banc a panel opinion finding that a community college board violated the First Amendment when it censured one of its members.^[32][33] The Supreme Court of the United States then reversed the Fifth Circuit in Houston Community College System v. Wilson (2022).^[34]

On April 9, 2021, Ho dissented when the Fifth Circuit refused to hear en banc on a case regarding the Certification Rule used to help implement the Affordable Care Act. Ho and four other judges would have struck down the Certification Rule.^[35]

On February 22, 2023, Ho wrote a sharply worded dissent from denial of rehearing after the Fifth Circuit granted qualified immunity to officials who jailed their critics. Ho wrote that the Fifth Circuit left Americans "vulnerable to public officials who choose to weaponize criminal statutes against citizens whose political views they disfavor."^[36][37]

On March 2, 2023, Ho wrote a concurrence in an amended opinion in United States v. Rahimi, pointing out the lack of constitutional safeguards for civil protective orders and claiming they are subject to abuse.^[38]

In August 2023, a dissenting opinion by Ho was published in which he argued that Catholic medical providers had legal standing to sue over abortion pill mifepristone because: "Doctors delight in working with their unborn patients—and experience an aesthetic injury when they are aborted"; Ho cited past court cases on the environment where it was ruled that people experienced aesthetic injuries when animals or plants were threatened.^[39][40][41]

On November 17, 2023, Ho wrote a concurrence in United States v. Kersee, a case concerning a violation of the Sixth Amendment; Ho emphasized the importance of constitutionality of legal proceedings against the accused, citing United States v. Rahimi as a particular example.^[42]