Judicial body says courts have discretion on new 'judge-shopping' policy after GOP backlash
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Judicial Conference on Friday issued guidance on the federal judiciary's new policy making it more difficult to "judge-shop" following public criticism from top Republicans in Congress.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Judicial Conference on Friday issued guidance on the federal judiciary's new policy making it more difficult to "judge-shop" following public criticism from top Republicans in Congress.
The term refers to a strategy that has been practiced by some conservative lawyers to bring their cases before a judge with a similar ideology.
A spokesperson for the administrative office of the U.S. courts said in a statement Friday that the conference’s new policies, approved on Tuesday, “should not be viewed as impairing a court’s authority or discretion.”
“Rather, they set out various ways for courts to align their case assignment practices with the long-standing Judicial Conference policy of random case assignment,” the spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, the conference approved a policy to randomly assign cases that could possibly halt state or federal policies to a wider pool of district court judges. The move is designed to crack down on lawyers who engage in “judge-shopping,” or bringing their cases before a smaller subdivision of a district that could ensure the case is overseen by a sympathetic judge.
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