TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 14, 2024

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has adopted a new rule aimed at curtailing “judge shopping,” whereby state attorneys general, activists and companies file lawsuits against government policies in courthouses where one or two sympathetic judges are virtually guaranteed to hear the case. The move reportedly comes in response to concerns from the American Bar Association, the Biden administration and other Democratic lawmakers about the number of suits being filed in single-judge divisions in Texas, which have limited President Joe Biden's policy agenda. Under the new policy, lawsuits seeking to block state or federal laws will be randomly assigned to a judge in the federal district. Some judges have criticized the rule, saying it appears to clash with a federal law that  gives district courts control over the allocation of cases on their dockets. Others have questioned the logistics of transferring cases, Reuters reports.