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Federal courts make it harder to 'judge-shop' like was done in abortion pill case (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The move by the U.S. Judicial Conference comes after high-profile cases in which lawyers have effectively been able to pick the judge.

When anti-abortion activists drafted a lawsuit seeking to overturn federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, they filed it in a court in Texas where they were guaranteed a judge who they thought would be friendly to their point of view.

That judge, Amarillo-based Matthew Kacsmaryk who was once a conservative legal activist and was appointed by former President Donald Trump, subsequently ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, prompting outcry and further litigation. The case is now before the Supreme Court.

The approach that the lawyers at the Christian conservative Alliance Defending Freedom took in that case, known as "judge-shopping," will be harder to pull off following a policy change made Tuesday by the federal judiciary.

The U.S. Judicial Conference at its biannual meeting approved a new policy that would ensure that any cases seeking to block state or federal policies in federal district courts would be assigned randomly from a larger pool of judges.

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[-] [email protected] 45 points 5 months ago

Sounds like something that should have been fixed a long time ago.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Couple hundred or thousands of shitty cases have got through already but I guess better late than never.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago

Vote in every election. Some judges are elected with a few thousand votes.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

This is good news that will help avoid bad rulings in the future.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024

227 points (99.1% liked)

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