Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A federal court in Texas, which has become a favored venue for conservatives trying to block President Joe Biden’s agenda, has decided not to follow a policy adopted by the judiciary’s top policymaker aimed at curbing the practice of “court shopping.”
Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbee of the Northern District of Texas announced the decision in a letter Friday to Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who urged him to implement a new policy aimed at randomizing cases challenging federal or state laws. . judges.
The policy, announced by the U.S. Judicial Conference on March 12, will require that a case challenging federal or state laws be assigned to a judge randomly throughout the federal district, rather than remaining in the specific, smaller division or courthouse where the case was originally filed.
If implemented, the policy would disrupt the tactics used by conservative plaintiffs to bring cases in small divisions of Texas’ four federal districts, where one or two judges are appointed by Republican presidents and often rule in their favor on issues such as abortion, immigration and gun control. . .
After sharp criticism from Senate Republicans and some conservative judges, judicial politicians later clarified that the policy was discretionary, leaving each district court to decide how to implement it.
In his letter, Godbey, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, said his district’s judges met Wednesday. “The consensus was not to make any changes to our case allocation process at this time,” he said.
His letter was first reported by Law360. Representatives for Schumer did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
The U.S. 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.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought in one of those smaller courts in which U.S. District Judge Matthew Kaczmarik – an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump on the Amarillo bench – halted approval of an abortion pill. mifepristone.
The Supreme Court allowed the pill to remain on the market while the appeal was pending. During arguments Tuesday, the justices signaled they were unlikely to uphold the restrictions.