James Dennis, a veteran Fifth Circuit judge who’s served as a relatively liberal guardrail on the conservative appeals court in recent years, has moved to inactive status.
The judge’s halt on hearing cases was confirmed by the court on Tuesday. Dennis, who turned 90 last month, had been regularly hearing cases since becoming a senior judge in 2022. Joe Biden appointed Judge Dana Douglas to fill his seat on the court.
“He has served honorably on this court for just over thirty years,” a notice on the Fifth Circuit’s website reads. “We thank him for his long and distinguished service to this court and our country.”
Dennis’ departure will be a blow for liberal parties whose causes he’s sided with as part of the minority left-leaning wing of the court.
As a senior judge, Dennis penned a majority opinion finding that a Mississippi felon voting ban violated the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and another saying a church and coffee shop could sue over requirements they post signs that guns are forbidden on their property.
He was also key votes for rulings against West Texas A&M officials who canceled a student group’s on-campus drag show; a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms; and a challenge to Nasdaq’s SEC-backed rules meant to improve the number of women and minorities on corporate boards.
Each of those rulings were taken up by the Fifth Circuit’s full slate of active judges, which consists of a majority of Republican appointees. They voted to vacate Dennis’ opinions and ruled counter to him in the Mississippi felon voting and Nasdaq diversity rule cases.
The divided en banc court on Feb. 20 allowed Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law to go into effect, finding it was too soon to consider challenges to the displays. Dennis authored a dissent, saying the displays are the type of establishment of religion “the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent.”
Citing past Supreme Court rulings, Dennis said “that permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, without curricular incorporation and with compulsory attendance, violates the Establishment Clause. Our court avoids confronting that conclusion only through procedural artifice.”
The drag show case was dismissed last month shortly before the en banc court was set to hear it.
Dennis has heard 105 cases since moving to senior status in late 2022, according to a Bloomberg Law review. His last sitting with the circuit was in October, during which Dennis heard eight arguments.
Dennis also served on the Louisiana Supreme Court for nearly 20 years, and earlier sat on lower state courts.
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