By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A federal court in Texas that has become a favored destination for conservatives suing to block President Joe Biden’s agenda has decided not to follow a policy adopted by the judiciary’s top decision-making body that aims to curtail the practice. of “judge shopping”.
Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey of the Northern District of Texas announced the decision in a letter Friday to Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had urged him to implement a new policy aimed at ensuring that cases that that defy federal or state laws are assigned randomly. judges.
The policy announced by the Judicial Conference of the United States on March 12 would require that in a case challenging federal or state laws a judge be randomly assigned to a federal district rather than remaining in the specific smaller division or court, where the case was initially filed.
If implemented, this policy would stop the tactic used by conservative litigants of filing cases in small divisions in Texas’ four federal districts, whose one or two judges were appointed by Republican presidents and often rule in their favor on issues such as abortion , immigration and gun control. .
Following backlash from Senate Republicans and some conservative judges, judicial policymakers later clarified that the policy was discretionary, leaving it up to each district court to decide how to implement it.
In his letter, Godbey, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, said the judges in his district met Wednesday. “The consensus was not to make any changes to our case assignment process at this time,” he said.
His letter was first reported by Law360. Spokespeople for Schumer did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas has 11 active judges and is divided into seven divisions. Most judges are located in Dallas, but some smaller divisions such as Amarillo, Fort Worth and Lubbock have only one or two active judges.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a case emerging from one of these small courts, in which U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump in the single-judge division in Amarillo — suspended l approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
The Supreme Court allowed the pill to remain on the market while it heard the appeal. The justices signaled during arguments Tuesday that they were unlikely to maintain the restrictions.