TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 18, 2024

After adopting a new rule aimed at curtailing “judge shopping” for cases that challenge government policies, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has clarified that trial courts have discretion on how to implement the policy. Reuters reports that in an email to district court judges on Friday, the chair of the Judicial Conference committee that developed the policy acknowledged that existing federal law gives the district courts sole discretion to decide how cases are assigned, and said the policy "should not be viewed as impairing a court's authority or discretion." He also said that conference policies "set out various ways for courts to align their case assignment practices with the longstanding Judicial Conference policy of random case assignment."