Dueling Judge-Shopping Bills Unveiled by Senate Leaders (1)

The Senate’s top Democrat and top Republican proposed dueling bills to prevent litigants from “judge-shopping” to obtain preferred outcomes in court.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), along with more than three dozen Senate Democrats, unveiled legislation Wednesday that would give teeth to the judiciary’s recent nonbinding policy that encouraged chief judges to randomly assign cases that seek to block statewide or federal laws or policies.

The judiciary’s guidance aimed to prevent litigants from filing certain political cases in single-judge divisions, a practice that effectively allows them to choose a judge they see as sympathetic to their ...