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diff --git a/.playwright/snapshots/components/SelectPanel.test.ts-snapshots/SelectPanel-With-Groups-light-colorblind-linux.png b/.playwright/snapshots/components/SelectPanel.test.ts-snapshots/SelectPanel-With-Groups-light-colorblind-linux.png
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diff --git a/.playwright/snapshots/components/SelectPanel.test.ts-snapshots/SelectPanel-With-Groups-light-tritanopia-linux.png b/.playwright/snapshots/components/SelectPanel.test.ts-snapshots/SelectPanel-With-Groups-light-tritanopia-linux.png
index 0f2c904f5bc..f48a70315c0 100644
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diff --git a/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.module.css b/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.module.css
index 29b81e1a630..2e503c37b7b 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.module.css
+++ b/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.module.css
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
   }
 
   /* if a list has a mix of items with and without descriptions, reset the label font-weight to normal */
-  &:has([data-has-description='true']):has([data-has-description='false']) {
+  &[data-mixed-descriptions='true'] {
     & .ItemLabel {
       font-weight: var(--base-text-weight-normal);
     }
diff --git a/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.stress.dev.stories.tsx b/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.stress.dev.stories.tsx
index 352ce000368..6c633eb32d4 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.stress.dev.stories.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/ActionList/ActionList.stress.dev.stories.tsx
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ const projects = Array.from({length: totalIterations}, (_, i) => ({
   scope: `Scope ${i + 1}`,
 }))
 
+const mixedProjects = Array.from({length: totalIterations}, (_, i) => ({
+  name: `Project ${i + 1}`,
+  scope: i % 2 === 0 ? `Scope ${i + 1}` : undefined,
+}))
+
 export const SingleSelect = () => {
   return (
     <StressTest
@@ -48,3 +53,38 @@ export const SingleSelect = () => {
     />
   )
 }
+
+export const MixedDescriptions = () => {
+  return (
+    <StressTest
+      componentName="ActionList"
+      title="Mixed Descriptions"
+      description="Stress test with a mix of items with and without descriptions to test :has() selector perf."
+      totalIterations={totalIterations}
+      renderIteration={count => {
+        return (
+          <>
+            <ActionList selectionVariant="single" showDividers role="menu" aria-label="Project">
+              {mixedProjects.map((project, index) => (
+                <ActionList.Item
+                  key={index}
+                  role="menuitemradio"
+                  selected={index === count}
+                  aria-checked={index === count}
+                >
+                  <ActionList.LeadingVisual>
+                    <TableIcon />
+                  </ActionList.LeadingVisual>
+                  {project.name}
+                  {project.scope ? (
+                    <ActionList.Description variant="block">{project.scope}</ActionList.Description>
+                  ) : null}
+                </ActionList.Item>
+              ))}
+            </ActionList>
+          </>
+        )
+      }}
+    />
+  )
+}
diff --git a/packages/react/src/ActionList/List.tsx b/packages/react/src/ActionList/List.tsx
index ee9213fcb50..ffd597ec906 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/ActionList/List.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/ActionList/List.tsx
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import {useProvidedRefOrCreate} from '../hooks'
 import {FocusKeys, useFocusZone} from '../hooks/useFocusZone'
 import {clsx} from 'clsx'
 import classes from './ActionList.module.css'
+import useIsomorphicLayoutEffect from '../utils/useIsomorphicLayoutEffect'
 
 const UnwrappedList = <As extends React.ElementType = 'ul'>(
   props: ActionListProps<As>,
@@ -66,6 +67,34 @@ const UnwrappedList = <As extends React.ElementType = 'ul'>(
     [variant, selectionVariant, containerSelectionVariant, showDividers, listRole, headingId],
   )
 
+  // Replaces a CSS `:has([data-has-description])` selector that caused full-subtree
+  // style recalculation on every DOM mutation (~674ms on 100 items, 10-20s freezes on Safari).
+  //
+  // Ideally we'd derive this from children during render, but each Item's description is
+  // detected via `useSlots` at render time, so the List can't know which Items have
+  // descriptions without duplicating slot detection or deeply inspecting children trees
+  // (fragile with Groups, conditional rendering, wrapper components, etc.).
+  //
+  // A context-based approach (Items registering their description state with the List) would
+  // work but adds registration/unregistration callbacks, a new provider, and re-renders when
+  // the count changes. Not worth the complexity for a derived boolean.
+  //
+  // Two querySelector calls after render is trivially cheap compared to what the browser
+  // was doing on every DOM mutation with `:has()`.
+  useIsomorphicLayoutEffect(() => {
+    const list = listRef.current
+    if (!list) return
+    const hasMixed =
+      list.querySelector('[data-has-description="true"]') !== null &&
+      list.querySelector('[data-has-description="false"]') !== null
+    const current = list.getAttribute('data-mixed-descriptions')
+    if (hasMixed && current !== 'true') {
+      list.setAttribute('data-mixed-descriptions', 'true')
+    } else if (!hasMixed && current !== null) {
+      list.removeAttribute('data-mixed-descriptions')
+    }
+  })
+
   return (
     <ListContext.Provider value={listContextValue}>
       {slots.heading}