The Latest Breaking News from Judicial Conference

I obtained a copy of the report approved by the Judicial Conference. First, why on earth could this memo not have been issued contemporaneously with the press release? This may be one of the most-botched governmental rollouts since HealthCare.gov. The Executive Committee should carefully re-assess their procedures here. Second, the…

A general power to issue orders to judicial employees does not trump a specific power for district courts to make their own rules about case assignments.

"It is Congress that decides how cases should be assigned in the inferior courts and Congress has already spoken on this issue in an enacted statute."

We should wait until we know what (if anything) is happening.

The way to depoliticize the courts is to depoliticize the courts.

I was delighted to see the Judicial Conference of the United States is acting to promote random case assignment in certain declaratory judgment and injunction cases. You can read the press release here. It will be important to see the details, but as outlined, this policy change will ameliorate the…

The Chief Justice and his associates target only one type of forum shopping in response to political criticism through a secret policy that will not be released for months.

“Even using Thomas’ flawed logic... there’s no way this chartered flight fits into that exception," expert says

Pressure is rising on the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt an ethics code. On its face, this sounds reasonable. What’s not to like about ethics? But it’s worth asking what problem the change would solve.

Can an active federal judge serve on a committee with the power to nominate another federal judge over the President's objection? You might think the answer is obviously no, but the D.C. Home Rule Act authorizes just such a process. And Judge Emmitt Sullivan (D.D.C.) chairs that committee. In 2020,…

Recent evidence showing that Virginia Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent at least 29 text messages to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to help overturn the 2020 election has reignited a long-simmering debate about judicial ethics and the nation’s highest court.