Senate Considers Clamping Down on Conservative Judge Shopping 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is considering legislation to stop judge shopping after a Texas federal judge rejected pleas to revise his jurisdiction’s method for assigning cases.

The threat to use legislation to force federal judges to follow a case assignment procedure recommended by the Judicial Conference of the United States came from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

He wrote a letter last month to U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey, chief judge in the Northern District of Texas, encouraging him to implement the new procedure.

Judge shopping, also known as forum shopping, is the practice of filing lawsuits in courts where the plaintiffs believe they are most likely to receive a favorable judgment, even if the jurisdiction has minimal connection with the legal issues.

It is sometimes blamed for creating injustices based on the political preferences of judges rather than the merits of cases.

The Northern District of Texas is preferred by conservative political advocates to challenge government policies because of some of the one- or two-judge courts’ tendency to side with them. Examples include conservative rulings on illegal immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights and climate change.

As a response to complaints about judge shopping, the U.S. Judicial Conference announced a policy last month that requires lawsuits seeking injunctions against enforcement of state or federal laws to be assigned randomly to judges throughout a federal district.

The policy bans the lawsuits from being filed in specific courthouses, divisions or in the larger district. The Judicial Conference sets policy for the judiciary.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has 11 active judges divided among seven divisions. Most are in Dallas but smaller divisions in Amarillo, Fort Worth and Lubbock have only one or two judges.

Godbey responded to Schumer with a letter last week saying the Northern District would not change its assignment procedure by randomly assigning cases.

He appeared to invoke the constitutional separation of powers when he wrote that federal law gives courts “wide latitude to establish case assignment systems” most appropriate for each district. 

“The district judges of the Northern District of Texas met on March 27, 2024, and discussed case assignment,” Godbey wrote. “The consensus was not to make any change to our case assignment process at this time.”

Schumer responded by sharply criticizing the Texas judges.

“It is unfortunate that Chief Judge Godbey and the district judges of the Northern District of Texas have decided to continue to allow the odious practice of judge shopping,” Schumer said in a statement.

He added, “The Senate will consider legislative options that put an end to this misguided practice.”

One of the judge shopping cases out of Texas that incited the anger of lawmakers is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk suspended Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Kacsmaryk was appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump in Amarillo’s single-judge division.

The Supreme Court is allowing the pill to remain on the market while it considers the appeal. The justices’ comments during a hearing last month indicated they were unlikely to uphold Kacsmaryk’s ruling.

Judge shopping also has been blamed for inhibiting U.S. technology development by interfering with patent rights.

The most obvious example is patent claims filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In recent years, the cases were resolved favorably for the plaintiffs 78% of the time compared with a national average of 59%.

In a famous judge shopping case, John Allen Muhammad was arrested in Maryland in 2002 after a spree of murders in the Washington, D.C., area. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft turned him over for prosecution in Virginia based on a perception the state court would render a more severe penalty. Muhammad was executed in prison in 2009.

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