After law school, Ho was a
law clerk to Fifth Circuit judge
Jerry Edwin Smith from 1999 to 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he was in private practice at the
Washington, D.C. office of the law firm
Gibson Dunn, where he assisted partner
Theodore Olson with his representation of
George W. Bush in
Bush v. Gore. He has held multiple positions as a member of the
Federalist Society since 1996.
Federal judicial service On September 28, 2017, President
Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Ho as a United States circuit judge to an undetermined seat on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Cruz had promoted Ho as a candidate for a vacancy on the court. On November 15, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before the
Senate Judiciary Committee. On December 7, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On December 13, 2017, the
United States Senate invoked
cloture on his nomination by a 53–44 vote. On December 14, 2017, Ho's nomination was confirmed by a 53–43 vote. He received his judicial commission on January 4, 2018. On September 9, 2020, Trump included Ho on a list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. Trump nominated
Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed. Ho has again been identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee should a vacancy arise during Donald Trump's second term. Senator
Josh Hawley (R-MO) stated in June 2024 that he believes Ho "has done a terrific job on the 5th [Circuit]" and that Ho is "principled" and "will be immune to the
Greenhouse effect.” Senator
Ted Cruz (R-TX) has also expressed support for Ho's elevation to the Supreme Court. Ho was named to the shortlist of presidential candidate
Vivek Ramaswamy. On September 29, 2022, Ho delivered a speech at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky and said he would no longer hire law clerks from
Yale Law School, which he said was plagued by "
cancel culture" and students disrupting conservative speakers. Ho said Yale "not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it", and he urged other judges to likewise boycott the school. United States Circuit Judge
Elizabeth L. Branch of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed her participation in the Yale boycott in a statement to
National Review. Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future. , speaking during a 2024 event at the
University of Wisconsin Law School On May 6, 2024, Ho cosigned a letter alongside twelve federal judges, which he shared with CNN, vowing not to hire Columbia University law students or undergraduates for concerns that the university is not doing enough to counter students protesting the war in Gaza. Ho asked in the letter that the university should identify "students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them. If not, employers are forced to assume the risk that anyone they hire from Columbia may be one of these disruptive and hateful students." Ho has been outspoken defender of
consular nonreviewability against illegal immigration, suggesting "a sovereign isn’t a sovereign if it can't control its borders" and that "[o]ur national objectives are undercut when states encourage illegal entry into the United States." He has stated that "[i]f only 'the political branches of the federal government' can decide if a state has been invaded, it effectively prohibits states from exercising their sovereign right of self-defense without federal permission." Ho has also defended the use of the term "
alien", arguing it should not be seen as offensive, noting that "[i]t's a centuries-old legal term found in countless judicial decisions."
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." In 2020, Ho was a member of a panel that stayed a preliminary injunction entered by United States District Judge
Samuel Frederick Biery Jr. 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. On September 9, 2021, Ho authored the majority opinion for an en banc panel in
Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, interpreting a provision of the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Ho was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in an opinion authored by Justice
Elena Kagan. == Personal life ==