Shopping for the Perfect Court

In the past few years, there’s been an explosion of nationwide injunctions coming from single-judge divisions in the federal court system. These judges were handpicked by the people filing these lawsuits.

You may have heard of one: U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. With Kacsmaryk’s rulings, Texas has been able to dictate federal discrimination guidance for transgender employees and commandeer the Biden administration’s immigration policies. He also tried to limit abortion access nationwide, issuing a ruling that would have removed the abortion drug mifepristone from shelves across the country.

In Sidebar’s seventh episode this season, we bring you the inside baseball of judge shopping. Federal rules govern how many judges are assigned to a court, and when a court has a division with only one judge at the helm, it becomes easier to know who will hear your case.

Special guests:

• Brook Gotberg, law professor at Brigham Young University
• Laura Coordes, law professor at Arizona State University
• Steve Vladeck, law professor at the University of Texas at Austin
• Jonas Anderson, law professor at the University of Utah

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.