UPDATE: The Northern District of Texas — the area where Republicans have been accused of filing lawsuits to judge shop, like the mifepristone case before the Supreme Court — said it will not follow a new advisory rule about random case assignment.
🔗: https://t.co/LHhyL5tUEz https://t.co/V7fbp6JK9w
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) April 2, 2024
Why is this new policy only advisory? In every situation, it seems like it’s always the ones who need it most who blow things off.
Conference Acts to Promote Random Case Assignment
Published onMarch 12, 2024
The Judicial Conference of the United States has strengthened the policy governing random case assignment, limiting the ability of litigants to effectively choose judges in certain cases by where they file a lawsuit.The policy addresses all civil actions that seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions, “whether by declaratory judgment and/or any form of injunctive relief.” In such cases, judges would be assigned through a district-wide random selection process.
“Since 1995, the Judicial Conference has strongly supported the random assignment of cases and the notion that all district judges remain generalists,” said Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., secretary of the Conference. “The random case-assignment policy deters judge-shopping and the assignment of cases based on the perceived merits or abilities of a particular judge. It promotes the impartiality of proceedings and bolsters public confidence in the federal Judiciary.”
In most of the nation’s 94 federal district courts, local case assignment plans facilitate the random selection of judges. Some plans assign cases to a judge in the division of the court where the case is filed. In divisions where only a single judge sits, these rules have made it possible for a litigant to pre-select that judge by filing in that division.
In a November 2021 letter, Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont senator who since has retired, raised concerns about a concentration of patent cases filed in single-judge divisions.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., referenced this letter in his 2021 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, calling for a study of judicial assignment practices in patent cases. (rest of the article os below the fold)
“Senators from both sides of the aisle have expressed concern that case assignment procedures … might, in effect, enable the plaintiff to select a particular judge to hear a case,” Roberts said. During the patent-case study, the Court Administration and Case Management Committee (CACM) determined that similar issues might occur in bankruptcy and other types of civil litigation. Public debate grew when several highly controversial lawsuits, seeking nationwide injunctions against federal government policies, were filed in single-judge court divisions.
In submitting the proposed policy to the Judicial Conference, the CACM Committee said that some local case assignment plans risked creating an appearance of “judge shopping.” The committee also noted that the value of trying a civil case in the nearest court division becomes less important when the impact of a ruling might be felt statewide or even nationally.
The amended policy applies to cases involving state or federal laws, rules, regulations, policies, or executive branch orders. District courts may continue to assign cases to a single-judge division when they do not seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions, whether by declaratory judgment and/or any form of injunctive relief.
In addition to the Judiciary policy, the CACM committee will disseminate guidance to all district courts regarding civil case assignment.
Texas judges say they’ll ignore new rule to curb ‘judge shopping’
Federal judges say they plan to ignore the new rule.
Open thread.
Jeffro
Advisory? Policy? Republicans don’t think that laws (much less rules, much much less norms) apply to them. The orange toddler showed them that.
WaterGirl
Chief Justice Roberts is nominally in charge. If he cares anything for the credibility of his court, or gives a hoot about how his court goes down in history, you would think he would grow a spine.
Shalimar
Kacsmaryk wouldn’t be a problem if the 5th Circuit didn’t affirm his horrible decisions. No point in judge-shopping if the appeals court properly overrules what it should overrule.
Shalimar
@WaterGirl: Roberts definitely cares about how his court is perceived, but also, too, that ship sailed and sank a long time ago. There isn’t much he can do to rein them in now.
Old School
Martin
The problem with rules is that they carry an obligation you enforce them. Sometimes you don’t know how, and sometimes you can’t be bothered, and in those cases you make things advisory.
If a district doesn’t follow the policy, what’s the remedy? These people have lifetime appointments. You can’t take their courts away from them. You can’t not take the appeal or resolve a district split.
USSC is deeply embarrassed at the quality of shitty rulings coming their way, but Roberts is in no position to do anything about it, other than some tut-tuts. The institutional remedy is to impeach those judges, but they are there for a reason, and they are doing exactly what they were put there to do – to advance an agenda.
Another Scott
IOKIYAR??
Reuters:
(Kinda restating what’s in the Chronicle story:)
Nice.
American Blind Justice seems to be absent in The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas at the moment.
Grr…,
Scott.
Martin
Reminder that the 5th circuit is Alito’s circuit. Everything is functioning as intended.
Manyakitty
@Another Scott: “Shrink, I wanna kill. I want blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth.”
WaterGirl
@Martin: Well, it’s pissing me off royally. Not that that matters to anyone else but me!
smith
It doesn’t help that so many members of the Supreme Court are openly biased and/or corrupt. Roberts may care about his court’s ultimate standing from a historical point of view, but there’s no evidence he’s able or willing to do anything here and now to improve that reputation. If judges on the lower courts choose to emulate the worst of the Dirty Six, no one should be surprised.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: what? That one party is filled with spoiled brats who desperately need to come into sharp contact with all the consequences?
WaterGirl
Okay, some happy news from the courts.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Are Republicans hoping to pick up Washington State this year? Or trying to cheat, just for fun?
Shalimar
An aspect of the mifepristone case that doesn’t get mentioned enough: judge-shopping shouldn’t have mattered because the plaintiffs absolutely did not have even a shred of an argument for standing. Kacsmaryk should have thrown out the case immediately if he was remotely concerned with doing his actual judicial job. Instead, he continues to be an advocate for every cause he worked for before he became a lifetime federal employee.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: Memories of Republicans complaining about “Activist Judges” seem so quaint now.
Shalimar
@WaterGirl: They’re trying to cheat because one or two extra seats in the House could make a difference.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: The two districts are in eastern Washington’s Yakima Valley a heavily agricultural area that is majority Latino but has had zero Latinos in government. State GOP is just being racist. There’s little chance the GOP could take over.
p.a.
IANAL, so what good does professional courtesy and comity with their fascist counterparts do for our few remaining liberal Supreme Court Justices? It’s a lifetime appointment. Is not calling Alito a scumbag (in fancy book larnin’ language) to his face or in public forums going to change his vote on anything? Will they get struck by lightning if they say the name “Leonard Leo” in public? I’m only very slightly tongue-in-cheek. But really, outside of a less tense work environment- a minuscule concern when democracy is at risk- what is the benefit for them? And when it comes to it, how much time do they actually spend together?
Joe Falco
@Another Scott: What do you expect? This ain’t Alice’s Restaurant where you can get anything you want.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: Oh, of course! Duh. I should have realized.
I am hoping for a takedown of all 17 Rs in Biden districts. It was 18, but I believe Ken Buck was one of those. Not sure whether we have a chance at picking that one up.
UncleEbeneezer
Teri Kanefield has another excellent post about tv pundits, the Outrage economy and conspiracy theories, using them to explain the Ronna McDaniel fiasco. But she also shows examples of how MSNBC routinely spreads Left-approved, conspiracy theories to manufacture outrage:
WaterGirl
@Dan B: So hard to decide what might be the bigger motivator – cheating? Or racism?
Sounds like two, two mints in one, to me.
JPL
OT For those on Mastadon, you can follow joe now
Biden’s Threads account is now federating with Mastodon and can be followed with @potus
Scout211
John Eastman has been DISBARRED!
WaterGirl
@Scout211: That was fast!
JPL
@UncleEbeneezer: Earlier I started streaming Nicole, who I love dearly, and decided that I didn’t want to hear more about what trump did. It’s going to be a long campaign season, and I don’t need my stomach in knots the entire time.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: This is a lovely rendition.
Shalimar
@UncleEbeneezer: I don’t get the “blame Garland for everything legal” outrage that happens on progressive threads, and especially don’t get how Weissmann, Tribe, and Eisen, all of whom know better, blame him for anything to do with SDNY. Everyone in the legal community knows that SDNY is historically and notoriously resistant to main Justice oversight.
Martin
Chapman Law must be real proud their former dean was disbarred.
Baud
@JPL:
Thanks, tech wizard!
NotMax
IIRC the mifepristone case was brought to Judge Kacsmaryk by a quickly cobbled together entity purposely based in Amarilllo, so freshly created it still had that new grift smell.
Urza
@WaterGirl: Just for fun. Barring a natural disaster taking out Seattle they’re not winning anything statewide, or enough districts to take over the legislature. The state has almost 8 million people, more than 3 million of that is just in the greater Seattle area and only Spokane’s county gets a decent showing east of the mountains. Now, outside Spokane everything east of the mountains might as well be Idaho and they like to imagine they can take over or split off from the crazy liberals controlling the state passing mass transit and taxes on stock sales over a million dollars.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Interesting. I just don’t pay attention anymore, but I appreciate those who do.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
OT
Pic of the fireball we had here this morning.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Okay, watching that left me in tears – that was much too good for Eastman. I should have chosen some gaudy version with bagpipes.
Baud
@JPL:
That appears to be his government account. Do you know if his campaign account is available on Mastodon?
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Wow. That’s huge.
Baud
@Scout211:
👍
Manyakitty
@NotMax: hey now. For this SCOTUS, they could have just imagined the whole thing. Worked out great for that bakery. 😒
JPL
@Baud: That’s all I saw, but I assume they will
I did ask someone associated with the site, so we’ll see if I get a reply.
Manyakitty
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Neato! I followed you, too. Hope that’s ok!
Anonymous At Work
In a 6-3 Court, Roberts has no authority as part of the SIX. Only in a 5-4 Court, as part of the FIVE, does Roberts have the authority to eff the shit up on any judge that crosses his rules. “Case dismissed with prejudice” is a strong way to tell would-be Astroturf plaintiffs and the judges they go to where they can stick their case. Now, what’s Roberts going to do? Dissent?
Scout211
@WaterGirl: Yeah, that rendition was beautiful.
Maybe this one is more appropriate to say goodbye to John Eastman.
Hit the Road Jack
NotMax
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Needs moar theme music.
:)
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Yes. I am going to (virtually) retract that – their voices are so beautiful, and the whole thing was touching. I would have used that in the J.R. thread if I had known that beautiful rendition existed.
schrodingers_cat
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: That’s awesome. Are you going to take the photos of the eclipse?
Another Scott
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Space.com – Chinese Space Junk.
Your picture is much, much better than the ones in the story.
Maybe send it to the American Meteor Society?
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Ah, I thought it was a meteor. Space junk is the modern meteor.
Martin
@Baud: I will note that the US (including SpaceX) are quite good at responsibly de-orbiting their shit. China is notably terrible at it, though I think they’re trying to improve.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anonymous At Work: A lot of people think that the Chief Justice has a lot more power than the position actually has. Powerful and influential CJs had power and influence because of who they were not due to any powers intrinsic to the position.
WaterGirl
It’s getting late in the day, and today is the deadline for Jack Smith to respond to the “let’s have 2 jury instructions, one that basically directs them to a not guilty verdict, and one that is the wrong application of the law.”
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: But the Chief Justice is over the group that made the new rule. Surely he has some ability to enforce it.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: that one blows my mind.
Anonymous At Work
@WaterGirl: He heads the group and make recommendations but that’s it. He is the “most senior” on SCOTUS by default and helps set internal rules for SCOTUS itself, but there endth the powers. He can’t make mandatory recusal rules, unless he has a majority of SCOTUS behind him. His power on judge-shopping is limited to voting with a bloc to dismiss judge-shopped cases or order their venue changed and the entire process be redone.
TBone
@Scout211: 💙 gonna tee that up in Roevember too.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Okay. If you say so.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: The whole point of the post is that everyone should really stop listening to pundits who immediately jump to conclusions and speculate to make us all outraged. This also applies to about 90% of blog posts and comments.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: I’m very curious how the map will look! My district is next door and I wonder if our boundary will be involved. We’re MAGA red, so…
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I’m pretty sure Ken Buck’s district was not one of the 18 that Biden carried but was won by a Republican Representative. Buck carried the 4th CD by 60-40% in 2022, and it did not change much between then and 2020..
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, that’s not helpful. If I’m wrong about that, say so!
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Hopefully you end up in blue. ISH. At least!
WaterGirl
@Geminid: That was just from my memory, so you’re probably right. But I had seen people talking about 17 instead of 18, so i guess I drew the wrong conclusion.
karen marie
@UncleEbeneezer:
There are many days thatEvery day I’m grateful that MSNBC’s streaming site is too shitty to bother with.Matt
@WaterGirl:
The only way Roberts could repair the future reputation of his time on the court starts with him pulling out a manila envelope and declaring “this will hurt someone”.
It ends with six new vacancies on the court…
Jackie
@Urza: Generalizing much?
I’m one of those crazy liberals who just happens to live in eastern WA. And NOT in Spokane.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Hah! I don’t expect much dilution, if any, and honestly, we may get a bit redder.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Read what Anonymous at Work wrote. Don’t assume that Chief Justice means CEO of the federal judiciary. I am sorry that I was flippant, but the system is what it is. The fact that it is absurdist bullshit does mean that it isn’t how it is. Roberts can’t do a lot of things because his position does have the power to do it and he, as a person, doesn’t have the influence to make it happen.
UncleEbeneezer
@Shalimar: People are mad that Trump isn’t behind bars and they want someone to blame. Garland is an easy target and bashing him gets you a lot of clicks. The real explanation is complicated, multi-faceted (many of which are nobody’s fault), nuanced and boring.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: You were right in that one of the districts has already been retaken. That was New York’s 3rd CD, formerly reoresented by George Santos and currently represented by Democrat Tom Suozzi.
Five other New York Republicans represent districts won by Joe Biden: Mark Molinari, Anthony Esposito, Brandon Williams, Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota.
California has five such Republicans: Young Kim, Michelle Steel, David Valadeo, John Duarte and Mike Garcia. Arizona has two: David Schweikart, and Juan Ciscomani.
Other Republicans whose districts were won by Biden are: Lori Chaves-DeRemer (OR), Don Bacon (NE), Jen Kiggans (VA), Tom Kean Jr. (NJ), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA).
Eolirin
@Geminid: Depending on what the NY maps ultimately look like, Molinaro’s seat is probably going to be fairly difficult to take, though we’ll be making Pat Ryan’s seat safer in exchange.
ceece
@WaterGirl: I think the difference is that George Santos is gone now, and that district is represented by Tom Suozzi (D).
EDIT: Geminid got there before me, thanks!
WaterGirl
@Matt:
Where do I go to vote for that?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Appreciate the clarification.
WaterGirl
@ceece: @Geminid: Thank you both!
lurker
Responding in a dead thread (insomnia) to clarify some things –
This was a policy directive from the Judicial Conference of the US. The Judicial Conference is headed up by John Roberts as one of his many duties as Chief Justice. It creates policies for the federal courts and recommends amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure among other things. It is essentially a research arm of the Federal Courts tasked with figuring out how to make the courts function better (or less poorly).
The things that actually govern how the Courts function are statutes (U.S. Code, passed by Congress and signed by the President); Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Criminal Procedure (Fed.R.Civ.P. and Fed.R.Crim.P. as they are cited); and Local Rules adopted by each court. (District Courts, Appeals Courts, event the Supreme Court has local rules). There are also standing orders adopted by District Courts or even individual judges which further specify how things are handled, such as Judge Able always hears motions on Mondays and you must get a court date from his clerk, Judge Baker hears motions on Fridays and you must request a court date in a filing with her which will then be scheduled by the court.
The Judicial Conference recommends how local rules are structured, but has no ability to enforce it – the idea is to provide guidelines or best practices and then let local courts adapt based on what makes sense locally. A district court with seven divisions (e.g. Northern District of Texas) having single judges in each division (and a few divisions with a larger number of judges) may handle things differently from the Northern District of California (NDCA) with something like four divisions and a bunch of judges in each one. The Central District of California is basically LA and Orange County with a few other counties thrown in, and has (I think) three divisions. Things get more complicated – NDCA has one division (Eureka) that has only a magistrate judge (not a full Article III judge), so not all cases can stay in that division.
So, the Judicial Conference announced a new policy, relating to civil cases, that interestingly grew out of concerns about filing of patent cases in single judge divisions in the Eastern District of Texas over the last 20+ years. The Northern District of Texas (NDTx) decided they were not immediately going to act on it and said as much. Most of the time, these policy changes take time to implement, so this is less interesting or surprising than it seems.
If enough judges get concerned about this, or enough congressmen get concerned about this, it will get pushed toward some sort of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (in this case). That process generally takes years, and involves hearing before the Judiciary Committees of both houses of Congress just to get changes considered. This represents a first step, and a step taken publicly by the Judicial Conference, so likely John Roberts is signaling that the Chief Justice thinks this is a problem.
The idea that this is a situation where the NDTx judges metaphorically flipped off Roberts is overblown. The idea that the situation is hard to remedy and that Republicans created a bunch of these districts to take advantage of something patent cases were known for previously – that idea is completely on point, and something we likely should have had Democrats attempting to stymie previously.
Anyway, my two cents on this one, there is a lot more one could delve into, that pointy headed academics even find too dull to discuss.
Another Scott
@lurker: Thanks very much.
I like your reminder that there are processes and usually/always more steps along the way before changes to complex systems are implemented. It can be frustrating, but there would be chaos if policies and rules were changing because of one group’s recommendations all the time.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.