On Monday, April 27, 2026, Raw Story reported that U.S. District Judge Alan Albright abruptly announced his resignation this month, leaving behind a significant workload of unresolved casework. According to Ryan Autullo of Bloomberg Law, Albright’s decision may stem from dissatisfaction with his role as a judge.
Albright, appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2018, is expected to depart in August. Autullo noted in a post on X that Albright’s unhappiness was evident prior to his resignation. He cited a substantial backlog of cases and the judge’s tendency to delegate hearings to a Magistrate as signs of his discontent.
The Western District of Texas, where Albright served, had 129 civil cases pending for at least three years as of last September, with 70% of those cases attributed to Albright. Furthermore, Albright was responsible for 63% of the 706 civil motions that had been awaiting a decision for six months or longer, according to the report. As of September 2025, Albright had 446 undecided motions, nearly twice the number of any other district judge in the three states comprising the Fifth Circuit. Robert Pitman and David Ezra, Albright’s judicial colleagues in Austin, had none.
Former Texas-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel told Bloomberg Law that Albright’s departure would significantly burden the remaining judges, stating that his large docket wouldn’t decrease substantially by the end of August, regardless of Albright’s efforts.
While Albright primarily focused on patent litigation, he occasionally engaged in politically charged cases. One notable decision involved a ruling against the Texas GOP’s book-banning legislation in 2023, deeming it an “unconstitutional law” that could potentially lead to the banning of classic literature.
Source: Raw Story
