Dem
51
GOP
49
Continuing on with matters legal, the Judicial Conference of the United States announced a pretty important decision earlier this week. Henceforth, when federal cases involving "state or federal laws, rules, regulations, policies, or executive branch orders" are filed, they will be assigned at random to any judge in the district where the case was filed. Previously, they were assigned to any judge in the division where the case was filed. Districts have anywhere from 10 to 20 judges, while divisions sometimes have just one or two. Thus, under the old policy, it was much easier to steer a case to a judge deemed to be friendly to the plaintiffs.
"Judge shopping," as it is known, is a trick used by both Democrats and Republicans. That said, the nature of the system is such that it's disproportionately a Republican technique. The Senate's blue-slip system produces, more often than not, judges that "match" their division politically. Since sparsely populated rural areas are more likely to be red, one-judge (or two-judge) divisions are more likely to have a single Republican judge (or two Republican judges) sitting.
The poster boy for judge shopping is Matthew Kacsmaryk, who is: (1) the only judge sitting in the Amarillo division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, (2) very right-wing and (3) quite willing to issue orders that not only cover his division/district, but that apply to the whole country. Kacsmaryk is the one who unilaterally tried to halt the use of mifepristone (although the decision was stayed), one of two drugs used in concert for medication abortions and other medical treatments.
The runner-up poster boy, meanwhile, is Drew Tipton, who is: (1) the only judge sitting in the Corpus Christi division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, (2) also very right-wing and (3) also willing to issue orders that apply to the whole country. Tipton is particularly known for striking down Joe Biden's executive orders (although the rulings are often reversed on appeal).
Texas AG Ken Paxton, who knows how to work the system, has filed 28 lawsuits against the Biden administration since 2021. Of those 28, a staggering 18 were filed either in Kacsmaryk's division or in Tipton's. Now, that strategy will be much less effective. Paxton (and other partisan actors) will be able to select a district/circuit with a well-known political lean (Kacsmaryk and Tipton are both part of the famously conservative Fifth Circuit, for example), but picking the perfect judge isn't going to be doable in these cases anymore. (Z)