Conservative judges and Republican lawmakers slam new policy that limits ‘judge shopping’

Conservative judges and senior Republican lawmakers are pushing back against a new policy that requires assigning judges at random in civil cases that have statewide or national implications, saying the action conflicts with federal law.

In letters sent to about a dozen chief judges across the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) - joined by Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Tex.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) - urged the judges to continue their current case assignment practices, noting “Judicial Conference policy is not legislation.”

They were responding to an announcement Tuesday by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body for the federal courts.

The conference said cases with statewide or national implications can no longer be automatically filed in single-judge divisions and assigned to the judges who preside there. Such divisions exist in rural parts of the country where courthouses are spaced very far apart.

District courts may continue to assign cases to a single-judge division if those cases don’t seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions through declaratory judgment or injunctive relief, the judicial conference said. When random assignments are required, the case will be assigned to a judge within the same judicial district.

Judicial Conference officials have not publicly released their new policy, and a spokesman could not immediately provide answers to questions about whether the conference has the authority to impose the new random case assignment policy on the courts.

In a statement Tuesday, officials said they were trying to address widespread concerns about “judge shopping” - or filing a lawsuit in a courthouse where the lone judge is known or suspected to be sympathetic to a particular cause.

The issue gained national attention after antiabortion activists filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke federal approval of the abortion medication mifepristone in a division with just one judge: Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, known for his long-held antiabortion beliefs. Kacsmaryk revoked federal approval of the drug. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed his ruling, and the case is now pending before the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) has led a year-long effort to get the conference to end its case assignment system, which he has said allows individuals to select a preferred judge to hear the case.

“The practice of judge shopping has given MAGA-right plaintiffs the ability to hijack and circumvent our federal judiciary by targeting courts that would all but guarantee a handpicked MAGA-right judge who would rule in their favor,” Schumer said in a statement praising the action by the judicial conference.

But McConnell, in his letter to the chief judges Thursday, wrote that neither Schumer nor the conference have the authority to tell the courts how to assign cases.

“It’s not our place to opine on how best you should manage the caseload of your court. Neither is it Senator Schumer’s place, for that matter,” McConnell wrote.

“It is your job to manage the caseload of your court according to the dictates of local circumstances and convention,” the letter continues. “We therefore hope and expect that you will continue to do what is in the interest of justice for litigants in your jurisdiction without regard to partisan battles in Washington, D.C. If at any time current law is insufficient to meet the needs of justice, you can be assured that Congress - and not the Judicial Conference - will make the relevant changes.”

Conservative judges have also raised concerns about the updated policy. Judges James Ho and Edith Jones of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the policy was the result of political pressure.

“Judges are supposed to follow the laws enacted by Congress, not bend the rules in response to political pressure,” Ho said in a statement to Reuters.