Texas Court Ignores Dem Calls To Adopt New ‘Judge Shopping’ Policy

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the Senate would consider legislative options to stop “judge shopping” after a Texas court ignored his call to implement guidance adopted by the judiciary’s policymaking body aimed at curbing the issue.

Northern District of Texas Chief Judge David Godbey, a George W. Bush appointee, informed Schumer in a letter Friday that the judges of his district had met to consider the rule regarding judge shopping — the practice of plaintiffs filing cases in districts where the judge is perceived as friendly — and decided “not to make any change to our case assignment process at this time.” The Judicial Conference of the United States announced a policy in early March instructing district courts to ensure cases seeking to “bar or mandate state or federal actions” are randomly assigned, rather than kept with judges in the geographic region where they are filed.

Democrats began calling to curb judge shopping after U.S. District for the Northern District of Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who hears cases in Amarillo, Texas, issued a ruling last year finding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needed to reverse its approval for a chemical abortion pill.

Schumer urged Godbey in a letter to implement the Judicial Conference’s policy after it was announced. Godbey responded by telling Schumer that federal statute “provides individual courts wide latitude to establish case assignment systems, permitting flexibility in managing their caseloads efficiently and in a manner that best suits the various needs of the district and the communities they serve.”

“The district judges of the Northern District of Texas met on March 27, 2024, and discussed case assignment,” he wrote. “The consensus was not to make any change to our case assignment process at this time.”