One of the few silver linings on the Judicial Conference's ill-fated "guidance" document is that the judges have stimulated debate in the legislature–where these debates belong. Now, the senate leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties have introduced judicial reform bills. I have not obtained a copy of Schumer's bill, though the New York Times offers this description:
Senator Schumer's bill tracks the guidance last month from the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's policymaking body. It would end the most targeted form of judge shopping, where plaintiffs game a district's case-assignment system by filing in a small division staffed by one or two judges.
The Schumer bill, as I understand it, would in no way limit the remedy that a particular judge can issue. It would simply limit which judges can issue that remedy. Again, the "random" reassignment will necessarily take cases away from judges in remote outposts, and transfer those cases to judges in urban areas. That is a feature, not a bug of the Judicial Conference's policy, and now Schumer's bill. And nothing will diminish the ability to draw a favorable court in San Francisco, Green Belt, Portland, and a host of other friendly venues.
