Judicial Rulemaking Body Moves To Block Conservative Strategy Behind Abortion Pill Case

The Judicial Conference of the United States announced new rules for the federal judiciary Tuesday that would prevent the practice of judge-shopping, where litigants choose where to file their suit based on the near-certain knowledge that a specific judge will hear their case.

Judge-shopping has come under increasing fire since President Joe Biden was elected. Conservative activist groups have sought to block his administration’s policies by filing lawsuits in federal courthouses where they expect to draw a sympathetic conservative judge to hear their case. Often the justification for the filing location rests only on a tenuous connection to the region.

The most glaring example occurred in the twin cases now before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenge the validity of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone and the Biden administration’s rules allowing the prescription drug to be mailed to patients.

Anti-abortion groups initially filed the suit at the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Texas. The location had nothing to do with any claim of harm caused by mifepristone in Amarillo. Instead, they chose that courthouse because they knew that Matthew Kacsmaryk was the only judge who drew cases there. Kacsmaryk, who was nominated by President Donald Trump and has a history of opposing reproductive rights, ruled as expected and imposed a nationwide injunction blocking the distribution of the drug in April 2023. An appeals court partially sided with Kacsmaryk, but the U.S. Supreme Court put that decision and Kacsmaryk’s injunction on hold before the month was out. Arguments in the case are scheduled before the high court on March 25.

The new rules issued by the Judicial Conference, the