Republicans push back on new federal court policy aimed at ‘judge shopping’ in national cases

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are taking aim at a new federal courts policy aimed at curbing “judge shopping,” a practice that gained national attention in a major abortion medication case. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against it on the Senate floor Thursday and joined with two other GOP senators to send letters to a dozen chief judges around the country suggesting they don’t have to follow it. The new policy calls for cases with wide-ranging implications to get random judge assignments, even in smaller divisions where all cases filed locally go before a single judge. Democrats have applauded the change.