Schumer Threatens Legislation if Texas Federal Court Won’t Discourage Judge-Shopping

Chuck Schumer Threatens Legislation to Stop Texas Forum Shopping

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is taking a stand against Texas-based Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has repeatedly ruled against the Biden administration. Schumer is threatening to push legislation to discourage alleged forum shopping by Republican plaintiffs in the federal district court in Texas.

Why Democrats are Angry

Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, has issued a series of rulings opposed by Democrats. In April 2022, he infuriated pro-abortion activists when he ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was wrong to approve the abortion drug mifepristone for public use in 2000. In October 2022, Kacsmaryk struck down a federal guidance exempting LGBT employees from workplace policies on bathroom use, dress codes, locker rooms, and pronoun usage. In December 2021, he ruled against a federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care workers. In August 2021, Kacsmaryk ruled that the Biden administration could not end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program that requires non-Mexican asylum-seekers arriving at the southern border to wait in Mexico for processing until the program was “lawfully rescinded.”

What Schumer is Doing About It

In an April 27 letter to David Godbey, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Schumer complained that plaintiffs in the state are effectively free to select the judge who will hear their case. Several challenges to Biden administration policies, some of which have been brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, have been filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas. Lawyers routinely try to obtain a favorable forum to hear their client’s cases but Democrats say Texas makes it unusually easy for conservative plaintiffs to seek out sympathetic judges like Kacsmaryk.

Schumer’s Message

“Unsurprisingly, litigants have taken advantage of [the current system] to hand-pick individual district judges seen as particularly sympathetic to their claims,” Schumer wrote in the letter. Schumer and Democrats are determined to put an end to this practice and ensure that justice is served fairly and impartially.