Republicans push back on new federal court policy aimed at ‘judge shopping’ in national cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans took aim Thursday at a new federal courts policy aimed at curbing “judge shopping,” a practice that gained national attention in a major abortion medication case.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against it on the Senate floor and joined with two other GOP senators to send letters to a dozen chief judges around the country suggesting they don’t have to follow it.

The courts’ policy calls for cases with wide-ranging implications to get random judge assignments, even in smaller divisions where all cases filed locally go before a single judge. In those single-judge divisions, critics say private or state attorneys can essentially pick which judge will hear their case, including suits with state or national implications.

Interest groups of all kinds have long tried to file lawsuits before judges they see as friendly to their causes, but the practice got more attention after an unprecedented ruling halting approval of abortion medication.

That case was filed in Amarillo, Texas, where it was all but certain to go before a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump who is a former attorney for a religious-liberty legal group that championed conservative causes.

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