Boston Federal Court Will Randomly Assign Some National Cases

The Massachusetts federal trial court will assign certain cases challenging federal policies to judges at random, following judiciary guidance last year aimed at curbing judge-shopping practices.

Civil lawsuits seeking to block policies nationwide filed in the Boston-based court’s Springfield and Worcester divisions may now be assigned to any judge on the bench, regardless of division, Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts said in a Tuesday night memo.

The Springfield and Worcester divisions each have one sitting district judge. Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, an Obama appointee, sits in Springfield, while Judge Margaret Guzman, a Biden appointee, sits in Worcester.

The new procedures come as the Boston trial court has emerged as a popular venue for legal challenges to the Trump administration’s executive orders. Eleven of the court’s 13 active judges were appointed by Democratic presidents, and none of its judges were appointed by Donald Trump.

At least half a dozen lawsuits challenging Trump’s actions were filed at the Massachusetts district court in recent weeks, including those targeting his order to end birthright citizenship, buyouts for federal workers, and cuts to federal funds for health research. They’ve so far been assigned to judges based in Boston.

The assignment memo comes almost a year after the federal judiciary encouraged federal trial courts to adopt procedures to deter judge-shopping, or the practice where litigants file strategically in single-judge divisions to select a judge they see as favorable to their causes.

The US District Court for the Northern District of Texas has come under particular scrutiny for the practice given its case assignment structure, which that court hasn’t changed. The Amarillo courtroom of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who hears all challenges filed in that division, became a magnet for conservative challenges during the Biden administration.