Andrew Hanen
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Andrew Scott Hanen (born December 10, 1953) is an American lawyer who serves as a
senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...
United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
of the
United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (in case citations, S.D. Tex.) is the federal district court with jurisdiction over the southeastern part of Texas. The court's headquarters is in Houston, Houston, Texas, and ...
.


Early life and education

Hanen was born on December 10, 1953, in
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and raised in
Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and Interstate 35, I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin, Texas, Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 popul ...
.Molly Hennessy-Fiske
U.S. Judge Andrew Hanen has history of opposing Obama immigration policies
''Los Angeles Times'' (February 17, 2015).
He received a
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
, with honors, from
Denison University Denison University is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio, United States. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. It was first called ...
in 1975, majoring in
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
and
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
. He received his
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from
Baylor Law School Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas. Baylor Law School is affiliated with Baylor University and located in Waco, Texas. The school has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1931 and has been a member of the Associa ...
in 1978.


Career

Hanen began his legal career as a briefing attorney to Joe R. Greenhill, chief justice of the
Supreme Court of Texas The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court ...
, from 1978 to 1979. He then worked in private practice in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
from 1979 to 2002. In 1992, Hanen was nominated by then-President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
to be a
United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
, but the nomination lapsed.


Federal judicial service

On January 23, 2002, he was nominated by President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
to a seat on the
United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...
for the Southern District of Texas vacated by Filemon Vela Sr., who assumed senior status. Hanen was confirmed by the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
on May 9, 2002, by a 97–0 vote. He received his commission on May 10, 2002. He assumed senior status on January 2, 2025. Hanen maintained chambers in
Brownsville, Texas Brownsville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Cameron County, Texas, Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border, border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas ...
from 2002 until 2018, when he relocated to Houston, also within the Southern District.


Notable cases

During the sentencing of a convicted child smuggler in December 2013, Hanen sharply criticized the
United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...
in an opinion that "veered far from the matter at hand" and "that quickly won rave reviews on right-wing news sites." Not only did he criticize the policy of reuniting children with their
illegal immigrant Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...
mothers, he further rebuked the department for not prosecuting this child's mother. Hanen wrote, "DHS should cease telling the citizens of the United States that it is enforcing our border security laws because it is not. Even worse, it is helping those who violate these laws." In February 2015, Hanen granted the State of Texas's motion for a nationwide
preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...
barring President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
from carrying out the
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), sometimes called Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, was a planned United States immigration policy to grant deferred action status to certain undocumented i ...
(DAPA) program. In '' United States v. Texas'', that ruling was affirmed by an equally divided
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
on June 23, 2016 (with an eight-member bench due to the death of Justice
Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...
). Hanen made national news for related assertions and sanctions which were later withdrawn. On May 19, 2016, while the case was awaiting a decision at the Supreme Court, Hanen demanded that some 3,000
Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
lawyers in 26 states take ethics classes, and ordered other sanctions for those who argued '' Texas v. United States'', involving President Obama's immigration executive actions.Aaron Nelsen (June 7, 2016)
"Federal judge stays his sanctions order"
''
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''.
Hanen did not explain why he extended his sanctions to attorneys who had no involvement in the case.Julia Preston (May 31, 2016)
Justice Dept. Says Judge in Immigration Case Is Out of Bounds
''
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''.
Hanen accused Justice Department's lawyers of lying to him during arguments in the case, and barred them from appearing in his courtroom. He accused the department of "a calculated plan of unethical conduct". Hanen further ordered
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
Loretta Lynch Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American attorney who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the ...
to appoint someone within the department to ensure compliance with his order. Hanen also ordered U.S. immigration officials to turn over, within weeks, the names and addresses of 50,000 people who received deferral under the expanded deferred action initiative. The
National Immigration Law Center The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is a center in the United States that "engages in policy analysis, litigation, education and advocacy, to achieve hevision" of "a society in which all people—regardless of race, gender, immigration or e ...
, the
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(ACLU) Immigrants' Rights Project, and the ACLU of Texas petitioned the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...
to vacate the order or postpone the deadline. Separately, the Justice Department argued in a filing in the district court that Hanen's ordered sanctions "exceed the scope of
he court's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
authority and unjustifiably impose irreparable injury on the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and thousands of innocent third parties." The Justice Department also argued that additional ethics courses could cost up to $7.8 million over five years. On June 7, 2016, Hanen stayed his order requiring ethics courses for federal attorneys and requiring U.S. immigration officials to turn over the names and addresses until August 22, 2016. On January 19, 2017, Hanen withdrew the sanctions in the order issued on May 19, 2016, as well as his demand that
Immigration and Customs Enforcement The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from transnational crime and ille ...
(ICE) turn over personal information of 50,000 DACA recipients, stating: "This Court finds upon OJ'snewly filed evidence, that the statements in question, though repeated on multiple occasions, were not the product of a bad faith intent to deceive the Court or that they were made with malice." On July 16, 2021, Hanen ruled that the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a Immigration policy of the United States, United States immigration policy that allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigra ...
(DACA) program was unconstitutional, and provisionally blocked approvals of all new applications nationwide while allowing the receipt of such new applications. The ruling did not immediately cancel the protected status of existing recipients. On January 28, 2022, Hanen blocked enforcement of Texas's
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. The case was brought about by Palestinian-American contractor Rasmy Hassouna, who had refused to renew his business's, A&R Engineering and Testing Inc., contract with the city of Houston due to the law. Hanen ruled that the law violated Hassouna's
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right to
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
. On September 13, 2023, Hanen again held that DACA was unlawful, and extended the ongoing injunction preventing the government from processing new applications for the program. He declined the request, from the states challenging DACA, to order that the program be ended within two years.


2020 Texas voting case

Two days before a decision was rendered in this case, ''
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'' had described him as "one of the most notoriously partisan conservatives in the federal judiciary." On November 2, 2020, Hanen heard a suit against officeholder Chris Hollins, the Harris County Clerk, filed by Texas state representative
Steve Toth Steve Hixson Toth (born November 29, 1960) is an American businessman and politician serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 15, The Woodlands area. Early life and education Born and raised in New York (state), Ne ...
and a group of Texas Republican candidates who sought to invalidate about 127,000 drive-thru votes in
Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, and was estimated to be 5,009,302 in 2024, making it the List of counties in Texas, most populous cou ...
.Federal judge in Texas rejects Republican challenge to drive-through voting
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', Molly Hennessy-Fiske, November 2, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
Toth said Harris County exceeded its state constitutional authority by allowing drive-thru voting as an alternative to walk-in voting during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, a change Toth argued could be determined solely by the
Texas Legislature The Texas State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a p ...
. Democrats countered that his request would disenfranchise all voters who had previously cast drive-thru votes in good faith. Hanen dismissed the Republicans' lawsuit, stating they needed to prove the existence of an "evil motive" to have the ballots thrown out and he said they failed to do so. Hanen also ruled that the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit lacked standing and that drive-through voting could proceed on election day, but because the statute allowed for casting votes in "buildings," and he ruled that tent voting could not be included. Hanen's judgment retained the validity of the early drive-up votes that had been cast prior to his decision. It did not dismiss the possibility of whether those drive-thru sites comported with the state's election law. It did not preclude votes cast subsequent to his decision from being challenged, saying, "I would not vote in a drive-thru out of my concern whether that's legal or not." He ordered Harris County to retain and segregate records of any drive-thru ballots cast on Election Day because of the possibility of future legal challenges. Hollins chose to close nine of Harris County's 10 drive-thru voting sites on Election Day. He said, "I cannot in good faith encourage voters to cast their votes in tents if that puts their votes at risk." Hanen's decision was appealed by the Republican plaintiffs to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...
, but their appeal was rejected. Republican activist Steve Hotze and three Republican candidates sued the Clerk, Hollins, seeking to halt drive-through voting after the
Texas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court o ...
ruled that the manner of voting could proceed. Richard Mithoff, a Harris County attorney said, "We're very grateful that we saved 127,000 votes from both parties," standing with Hollins and other Texas Democrats outside the federal courthouse in downtown Houston. Hollins said the county's staff of 11,000 election workers were ready to count the early drive-through votes. Republicans requested that the courts stop the county from tabulating the votes until after the resolution of their claims. Before the decision, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins said that drive-through voting would continue on election day at 10 sites, in addition to in-person voting at more than 800 polling places. More than a million registered voters in the county still had not cast ballots, he said, adding that Republicans had filed almost a dozen lawsuits to constrict the intended expanded ability to exercise the franchise. "They will have the same access to the polls that their neighbors have had," Hollins said. "We're proud to be upholding democracy at a time when it is under attack." He said the case was just the latest in nearly a dozen lawsuits brought by Texas Republicans to block expanded voter access. In October, Republican Gov.
Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...
had limited every county to a single drop site for mailed votes, forcing Harris County to close 11 additional sites and voters to drive several hours to drop off their ballots. Republicans also successfully sued to block Harris County from mailing ballots to all those eligible unless they requested them. Hollins had previously said that drive-through voting would continue on election day at 10 sites, in addition to in-person voting at more than 800 polling places. More than 1 million registered voters in the county had yet to vote. After Hanen's decision, he kept the
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arena site open, since it comported with existing law. Regarding election day voting, as a result of the court rejecting the claim, "They will have the same access to the polls that their neighbors have had." "…We're proud to be upholding democracy at a time when it is under attack." He noted the case was the latest in nearly a dozen lawsuits brought by Texas Republicans to block expanded voter access. In November, Republican Governor Greg Abbott limited every county to a single drop site for mailed votes. That forced the county to have to close eleven other sites and caused some voters to need to drive many hours to drop their ballots off. Republicans also had successfully sued to stop Harris County from mailing ballots to every eligible voter in lieu of requests for such ballots. Hanen's decision was appealed by Republicans to the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...
. At stake in the legal contest over drive-through voting sites were almost 9% of all the votes cast in the third-most populous county in the U.S. The effort by Hollins that re-opened drive-through voting sites this year was intended to address safety issues resulting from the pandemic. Republicans who sued argued drive-through voting was offered illegally and strategically in areas with Democratic majorities. Curbside voting in Harris County previously had been limited to disabled voters, and drive-through voting in 2020 was unrestricted. Retiree Peter Nasser, had been protesting outside the courthouse "to protect my vote," saying Republicans were "scared to death of losing Texas." On October 13, Houston Attorney David Hobbs and his wife had voted in the drive-through and had joined the suit as plaintiffs. "Votes should be protected. That's what a democracy is," Hobbs said.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanen, Andrew Scott 1953 births Living people Baylor Law School alumni Denison University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Lawyers from Houston People from Elgin, Illinois People from Waco, Texas United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush