DALLAS - Sen. Charles Schumer made good on the warning he gave a year ago, introducing a bill yesterday aimed at stopping “judge shopping.”
Last month, the U.S. Judicial Conference recommended a policy governing random case assignment, seeking to limit the ability of litigants to effectively choose judges in certain cases by where they file a lawsuit.
The state of Texas has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden Administration, several of which have ended up in the Northern District’s Amarillo Division, where those cases are assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk – the only judge for the division.
Judge David Godbey, the chief judge for the Northern District, refused to adopt the policy, which many argue is aimed at eliminating the alleged “judge shopping” within the federal district.
A year earlier, Schumer had urged Judge Godbey to “reform the method” of how cases are assigned to judges in his district.
His letter advised the chief judge that “Congress will consider more prescriptive requirements” if litigants are allowed to continue to “hand-pick their preferred judges” in the Northern District.
Schumer’s legislation seeks to codify the Judicial Conference’s policy, which proponents claim would curtail judge shopping.
“Judge shopping twists the justice system, often in favor of dark-money-funded plaintiffs with the resources and motivation to select judges who have broadcast their ideological views,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who released the bill along with Schumer. “Our End Judge Shopping Act backstops the Judicial Conference’s recently announced policy to prevent activist plaintiffs from handpicking their outcomes.”
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. John Cornyn had also sent a letter reiterating that the Judicial Conference should not interfere in the legislative process.
On the same day the bill was introduced, Conryn took the floor and commended Judge Godbey for resisting the political pressure and doing what “is right.”
“Democrats' attack[s] on our judiciary have varied, but the theme is always the same: it’s all about control. It's all about politics. It's all about outcomes, not justice and the rule of law,” Cornyn said. “Our Founders deliberately designed a system of checks and balances to prevent any one branch from forcing the other two to bend to its will, but that's exactly what our Democratic colleagues are trying to do, and it's wrong, it’s unconstitutional, and it must be stopped.
“Democrats have made clear that they'll do whatever it takes to secure partisan wins in the courts.”