NCJW opposes Angela Colmenero. Here’s why:
Angela Colmenero’s career raises serious concerns about her ability to serve as a fair and independent federal judge. Throughout her tenure in the Texas Attorney General’s Office, she played a leading role defending some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, challenging protections for transgender youth, defending discriminatory voting laws and redistricting maps, and advancing policies targeting immigrant communities. Her record reflects a pattern of undermining fundamental rights and calls into question her ability to serve with the independence, impartiality, and commitment to equal justice expected of a judge serving a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.
Angela Colmenero’s stance on important issues:
Immigration
Ms. Colmenero served as trial counsel in Texas v. United States, where she challenged the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
LGBTQ+ Rights
Ms. Colmenero filed an appeal to undo a district court judge’s ruling that stopped Texas from enforcing a state law prohibiting necessary and lifesaving gender-affirming care for young people. And, she reviewed and approved a Texas State Preservation Board’s policy which prohibited transgender individuals from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.
Reproductive Rights
Ms. Colmenero has defended Texas’s abortion ban, including the state’s position in Zurawski v. State of Texas — a landmark challenge to Texas’s near total abortion ban and its medical exception provisions.
Voting Rights
Ms. Colmenero was lead counsel in a case defending Texas’ photo ID law which disproportionately burdened voters of color. When the court ruled that it was discriminatory, she helped find a workaround. She also served as trial counsel representing Texas in multiple cases defending redistricting maps against Voting Rights Act challenges and in Texas’ failed effort to obtain Voting Rights preclearance for its redistricting.
Education and Career Highlights:
Ms. Colmenero received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin 2001 and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Law in 2004. Upon law school graduation, she clerked and then practiced law with two different firms. She then joined the Texas Office of the Attorney General, where she served as an assistant attorney general in the General Litigation Division, and was promoted to deputy chief of the Special Litigation Division before being appointed by TX Attorney General Ken Paxton to serve as chief of the General Litigation Division. In 2018, Ms. Colmenero joined Governor Greg Abbott’s office where she served as Governor Abbott’s deputy general counsel, Interim Texas Attorney General during Ken Paxton’s impeachment proceedings in July 2023, and now deputy chief of staff.