Every lawyer who has a choice tries to find a favorable venue - usually because the ethnic makeup of the potential jury venire matches the intended appeal of the plaintiff. But sometimes judge-shopping looks like the best bet. Sometimes that is an entire Circuit (think 5th now but not in the 1960's).
But recently in the Mifepristone case now before the Supreme Court the right wing plaintiffs of the so-called Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine rang the bell with a single judge U.S. District Court venue. Judge Matthew Kaczmaryk, a dedicated anti-abortion activist, is the only one in the Northern District of Texas courthouse.
But now in what Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern call a victory against "rogue" judges the Supreme Court, via the 26 member Judicial Conference of the United States has issued a Guidance for Civil Case Assignments in District Courts to require the random assignment of judges.
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