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Judge in Eric Adams case fought for voting rights, against Trump citizenship question
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Samantha Max
Published Oct 10, 2024
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MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Oct 10, 2024
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The judge presiding over Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign corruption case has dedicated much of his career to defending fair elections.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho spent more than a decade advocating for voting rights as a civil attorney before joining the bench. Now, he’s presiding over a case that accuses a mayor running for reelection of violating campaign finance laws and accepting bribes from people during his last campaign for office.
At Adams’ first court conference earlier this month, Ho calmly navigated moments of politically charged legal drama. He rattled off relevant statutes as he explained his decision-making process. He asked questions about Adams’ locked cellphone and about key dates in the 2025 mayoral campaign. He occasionally let out a quick sigh and said “OK” when the mayor’s attorney urged him repeatedly to quickly move the case to trial.
Ho declined to comment for this story. Here’s some background on the judge based on his past statements to Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, in interviews and in writing.
Ho’s family immigrated to the U.S. for freedom
Ho was born in San Jose, California in 1977 to a Filipino immigrant family. At his Senate nomination hearing in 2021, Ho said his parents came to the U.S. “in search of freedom and a better life in this amazing country.”
At the hearing, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Ho’s career “is a shining example of the American dream.”
“He was always keenly aware, even as a kid, where his parents came from — and, frankly, what they escaped from: a country where power rested not in the people, but in the whims of one leader,” Schumer said. “That thought, as Mr. Ho will tell you, was the spark that began his love for democracy and for democratic institutions.”
Ho told the Senate judiciary committee that he became a lawyer because of his commitment to “equal justice under the law.”
“Everyone who walks into court, regardless of who they are, what their interests are, what their claims are, deserves a fair opportunity to be heard,” he said.
Before becoming a judge, he worked to eliminate barriers to voting across the country
Ho spent more than 10 years as director of the Voting Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union. Before that, he focused on voting rights at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In those roles, he represented people throughout the U.S. who said the government was trying to block their right to cast a ballot, according to a questionnaire Ho filled out for the Senate judiciary committee.
Ho challenged a Kansas law that required people to submit documentation proving their citizenship when they registered to vote. He fought a Florida law that bars people convicted of felonies from voting even after they’ve served their sentences, if they haven’t paid all their legal fines and fees. He also challenged a strict requirement for Wisconsin voters to present photo IDs at polling sites, North Carolina legislation that limited early voting and Ohio’s practice of purging names from its voter rolls.
“I have sought as a voting rights lawyer for the last 10 years or so to try to ensure that every American who’s eligible to vote has an opportunity to do so, across the ideological spectrum,” he said at his Senate nomination hearing.
He helped block a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 census
During the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced plans to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. As the ACLU’s director of voting rights, Ho represented civil rights groups who argued that a citizenship question would dissuade undocumented immigrants from participating.
Ho argued the cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, telling the justices that adding a citizenship question would lead to a less accurate count of undocumented immigrants.
“There isn’t a shred of evidence in the administrative record that suggests that this will not have the effect of harming response rates or will actually improve the citizenship data provided to the Department of Justice,” he said.
The justices ordered the Trump administration not to include a citizenship question on the census, arguing that officials’ explanation for their decision to add the question didn’t match their actual intent. That decision — and various other high-profile cases Ho worked on as a civil rights attorney — earned him praise from liberals. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow congratulated Ho on her show.
“In terms of the census, you won,” she said, before shaking his hand. “I know that it was a bewildering battle.”
Republican lawmakers fiercely opposed his confirmation to the federal bench
In 2023, the Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Ho, almost entirely across party lines. During Ho's confirmation hearing, Republican senators made clear that they would not support his appointment to the bench. Some cited statements Ho made on social media, in the press, and even in a speech he made at his church, which they called “radical.” They noted that he had also criticized some Republican members of the Senate judiciary committee online.
“Mr. Ho, you’re a smart man, I can tell,” Sen. John Kennedy said. “But I think you’re an angry man, and I really have great concerns about voting for you.”
Several conservative senators asked Ho about a friend’s description of him as a “wild-eyed sort of leftist.” They also cited a story he once told in church in which he said a colleague asked whether his work was motivated by a desire to help people or “because you hate conservatives.” Ho repeatedly said these statements were not words he would use to describe himself, but rather jokes others made about his passion for civil rights.
“That kind of temporary sugar rush from being angry at someone, while it can feel powerful in a moment, it’s not the kind of thing that is sustaining for a human being in the long run,” Ho said at the nomination hearing. “At the end of the day, if you want to do good work in the world, it has to come from a different place, a place of love for your fellow person.”
Ho also apologized for fiery statements he made on social media and pledged to transition from a “zealous” advocate for his clients to a “fair, neutral, impartial arbiter of the law” as a judge.
Ho was part of a city commission that worked to rein in campaign finance
In 2018, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Ho to the New York City Charter Revision Commission, which recommends changes to the city’s primary governing document. That group made several suggestions, including proposed alterations to local campaign finance laws. The commission recommended lowering the amount of money people can donate to city elections and strengthening a matching funds program for small donations — the same program Adams is accused of abusing. Those recommendations made it onto the ballot that November, and 80% of voters approved the measure.
At a recent court conference with the mayor, Ho mentioned his involvement in the charter commission. He said he didn’t think his participation would require him to recuse himself from the case — which focuses partly on campaign finance law — but said Adams could request his removal.
Tagged
Adams investigations
Politics
eric adams
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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