The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas won鈥檛 change its case assignment policy to curb judge shopping, according to a letter from Chief Judge David C. Godbey to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Schumer March 21 encouraging the court to implement a policy adopted by the U.S. Judicial Conference in mid-March that federal district courts randomly assign lawsuits concerning state or federal laws, in order to avoid the likelihood that a case will be assigned to a certain judge in a court's division.
But in a the senator made public Monday, Godbey said district judges met March 27 and decided 鈥渘ot to make any change to our case assignment process at this time."
A spokesperson told 四虎影院 in an email the court can鈥檛 comment on its decision-making process but confirmed the court hasn鈥檛 made any changes to its case assignment procedures.
Schumer called it 鈥渦nfortunate鈥� Godbey and the other judges would allow the 鈥渙dious practice of judge shopping鈥� to continue.
鈥淛udge shopping has been abused by right-wing activists to circumvent the legislative process and subvert the will of the American people,鈥� . 鈥淭he American people deserve to have faith in the fairness of our court system, and it is clear that the Judicial Conference鈥檚 new policy moves our legal system in the right direction.鈥�
Judge or occurs when plaintiffs or defendants push to get a case heard by a specific judge or in a specific area that the party believes will likely be sympathetic to their case.
Schumer had previously sent Godbey discouraging case assignments that allow judge shopping in April 2023, pointing out that, for example, every case filed in the Northern District of Texas鈥� Amarillo division is assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
The chief judge said he was 鈥渃ognizant of the public perception of improper judge-shopping in single-judge divisions,鈥� but the scope of the district is too large and assigning cases randomly would present logistical challenges for the court. Schumer pushed back, saying the Judicial Conference鈥檚 guidelines only apply to certain civil cases, which should make random assignment easier for the court to implement.
Senate Republicans like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been what he called the Judicial Conference鈥檚 鈥渉alf-baked鈥� recommendations.
Godbey鈥檚 latest response came as the Supreme Court in a case involving the , which started in Kacsmaryk鈥檚 court when he nearly a year ago. Attorney General Ken Paxton has been , who also blocked the Biden administration鈥檚 effort to end a Trump-era 鈥渞emain in Mexico鈥� policy.
Kacsmaryk was also criticized when it was discovered he removed his name from a 2017 law review article criticizing Obama administration policies protecting transgender people and people seeking abortions. The removal came during his judicial nomination process, but did not come to light until after his ruling in the mifepristone case, .
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X .
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider . Thank you.
