US federal judiciary adopts policy to curtail 'judge shopping'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

March 12, 2024 3:22 PM EDT


March 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. federal judiciary on Tuesday adopted a new policy aimed at curtailing "judge shopping" by state attorneys general, activists and companies who file lawsuits challenging government policies in courthouses where one or two sympathetic judges hear most cases.

The U.S. Judicial Conference, the judiciary's policymaking body, at a meeting in Washington, D.C., approved a policy that would require lawsuits seeking to block state or federal laws to be assigned a judge randomly throughout a federal district. U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, newly appointed chair of the Judicial Conference's executive committee, said the change was prompted by the "plethora of national, statewide injunctions" being issued by judges in such cases.

Nationwide injunctions allow a single judge in one federal district to block implementation of new rules across the entire U.S. The policy change followed calls by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, Democratic lawmakers, and the American Bar Association for the judiciary to eliminate case assignment mechanisms that allow litigants to effectively choose which judges will hear their challenges to government policies.

Those proposals came in response to concern over lawsuits filed in so-called single-judge divisions in Texas by Republican state attorneys general, conservative activists, and more recently companies and business groups challenging government policies. Texas' smaller federal courthouses outside of Houston and Dallas in cities like Fort Worth, Amarillo or Lubbock whose one or two primary judges are Republican appointees, were the destination of choice for many of those lawsuits.


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-federal-judiciary-adopts-policy-curtail-judge-shopping-2024-03-12/

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[SWBTATTReg]

1. Good. This shopping around for a 'good' judge shouldn't be allowed, unless all of us have the available resources to

do so. So in effect, these people are trying to get favorable justice simply by shopping around for a partial to them judge.

[multigraincracker]

2. Our courts have turned into

a joke.

[moreland01]

3. Right?

Kind of the first sign of the fall of democracy (besides jailing journalists).

[BumRushDaShow]

4. And since you mention "jailing journalists"

the idiots in the media who keep pumping up the fascism refuse to research history, and are clueless about the fact that THEY would be the first to be eliminated once a fascist that they promoted is installed.

[pecosbob]

5. So I guess that the Federalist Society forgot to coopt the Judicial Conference.

[pfitz59]

6. I think SCrOTUS was angry for not getting their share of bribes

"The ONLY judges getting shopped are us! Uncle Clarence needs a new RV!'

[Scruffy1]

10. You win.

By and large this is an admission that our federal judiciary is corrupt or incompetent.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. our law enforcment and the just us system and the rich mans court have been a laughing stock

for years.

[republianmushroom]

8. A little late closing that barn door. IMO

[Marthe48]

9. My late husband was in class action asbestos lawsuits

The lawyers he had mentioned that they would try to get judges in certain states to hear the cases. My husband entered the lawsuit in the early 90s and I can't remember which states the lawyers picked. I wasn't politically aware then, but even if my husband was going to benefit, I wondered if it was fair. I don't know if class action lawsuits have the same goal as rwnj trying to halt the use of morning after pills, but I'd be more sympathetic to some poor soul with a chemically induced disease than I would a fascist misogynist.