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U.S. District Judge Reed O鈥機onnor has a history of siding with Republicans on ideologically motivated lawsuits. His ruling last week, in which he sided with the GOP on a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, was not a one-off.

In fact, critics say, his history is ultimately why that case was before him in the first place.

By all accounts, O鈥機onnor鈥檚 ruling is sweeping. It says the entire health care law became invalid when Congress zeroed out, in 2017, the tax penalty for Americans who don鈥檛 have health insurance 鈥� a penalty that had been tied to what鈥檚 known as the law鈥檚听听that nearly everyone have insurance.

鈥淚 think he went too far in rejecting the entire law,鈥� said听, a conservative legal scholar and professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston. 鈥淚 think he could have stopped short and simply severed the Obamacare mandate.鈥�

While O鈥機onnor鈥檚 decision may seem a bit extreme to some legal scholars, it wasn鈥檛 surprising.

, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said if you know anything about O鈥機onnor鈥檚 past rulings, this was predictable.

鈥淚n case after case,鈥� Nelson said, 鈥渨hat he has shown is that he has tended to side with the Republican attorneys general who are bringing ideological suits.鈥�

Nelson recently ran an unsuccessful campaign to oust Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led this multistate legal challenge to the health care law. Nelson said Paxton and the other Republican attorneys general have filed lawsuits in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Texas because they know there鈥檚 a good chance they鈥檒l get O鈥機onnor as the judge.

鈥淛udge O鈥機onnor has been the go-to judge for Ken Paxton and Republican attorneys general who want to file ideological suits in any court across the country,鈥� Nelson said. 鈥淩eed O鈥機onnor is their best shot to get a ruling that they like.鈥�

O鈥機onnor, who did not respond to NPR鈥檚 requests for comment, was a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill before he was nominated to the federal bench by George W. Bush in 2007. So far, he has had to weigh in on at least a couple of contentious issues.

For example, O鈥機onnor is known for听that protected transgender students. In that case he also sided with Paxton, who filed that legal challenge.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e done this over and over again on the hope that Judge O鈥機onnor would rule on behalf of an ideological agenda,鈥� Nelson said. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 think that is proper. I don鈥檛 think that is right.鈥�

Paxton has filed lawsuits in other courts, too. He filed challenges to Obama-era immigration laws in a court in South Texas, which also has a reliably conservative judge on the bench.

Blackman said criticism of this practice is 鈥渙verblown.鈥�

鈥淎ll lawyers generally file the case where it leads to the best chance of success,鈥� Blackman said. 鈥淎nd to the extent that [there鈥檚 a] criticism 鈥� that鈥檚 criticism of the attorney general and not of the judge. The judge doesn鈥檛 control which cases come to him.鈥�

Furthermore, because O鈥機onnor is getting a lot of ideological lawsuits brought to him, it鈥檚 making his voting record more controversial, Blackman added.

鈥淚 think by virtue of the attorney generals鈥� form selection,鈥� he said, 鈥淛udge O鈥機onnor鈥檚 had a greater share than average of hot-button issues.鈥�

However, Blackman said, he is concerned that criticisms of controversial opinions are increasingly shifting toward the judges who issue the opinions 鈥� instead of toward the decisions themselves.

鈥淧resident Trump does this all the time,鈥� Blackman said. 鈥淧oliticians do it all time. And usually this happens to Supreme Court justices, but here it is being done to a district court judge in Fort Worth 鈥� who, 99 percent of his docket no one will even know about.鈥�

No matter how controversial O鈥機onnor鈥檚 ruling听on the health care law, Blackman said, the decision over the Affordable Care Act will now pass to another judge, as the case moves on to a higher court.

This story is part of a partnership that includes听,听听and Kaiser Health News.