Talking Points Memo

Saturday, March 11, 2023

THE WEEKLY READ

This edition of The Weekly Read brings you an article from TPM reporter Kate Riga about the practice of judge shopping. While plaintiffs across the political spectrum have historically sought to file lawsuits in jurisdictions favorable to their cause, Republicans in Texas have started to do so with a new, surgical level of precision. Now, they're able to effectively shut down Biden administration policy for the whole country by targeting district courts overseen by just a few judges.

Read Kate's piece for the full rundown of this Republican strategy and what, if anything, can be done to halt it.

Where Republicans Go Judge Shopping

Right-Wingers Have A New, Very Dependable Strategy To Game The Courts. Can It Be Stopped?

You would think, based on the flurry of litigation unfolding there, that a lot of drama is going down in Amarillo, Texas.

Of the couple dozen lawsuits Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed against the Biden administration, over a third have been funneled through the relatively small city, despite its distance from the state capital.

But it's got one thing going for it: Trump appointee Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has already amenably batted down Biden administration policies on immigration, access to contraception and LBGTQ protections. Helpfully for Paxton and other right-wing litigants, Kacsmaryk gets 100 percent of the criminal and civil cases filed in the Amarillo division of the Northern District of Texas.

Kacsmaryk has come under nationwide scrutiny while he mulls a case shopped to him to revoke the Food and Drug Administration's 20-year-old approval of mifepristone, a drug prescribed to induce abortion.

And Texas works out particularly well for judge shoppers — they can get a case into Kacsmaryk's hands in Amarillo, or maybe into Reed O'Connor's in Wichita Falls or Drew Tipton's in Victoria — resting easy in the knowledge that the state is controlled by the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That leaves as liberals' greatest hope for intervention…the Supreme Court. 

We hope you enjoyed this article. And if you did, we hope you'll become a member. Our members make our reporting possible. 

Thanks for reading!

This email was sent to trongrau1368.tpmf@blogger.com

You've received it because you've subscribed to our newsletter.

Update your preference | Unsubscribe

PO Box #490 217 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011, United States

© 2022 TPM MEDIA LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED