Law & Crime
A judge on the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit harshly criticized a prominent legal scholar and law professor during a recent panel discussion hosted by the Federalist Society.
Georgetown University Law Professor Steve Vladeck studies, among other subjects, “judge-shopping,” the process of filing lawsuits in single-judge divisions — typically to obtain sweeping national injunctions from a known-to-be friendly court.
On Thursday, during a forum entitled “The Continued Independence of the Judiciary,” the law professor was the target of criticism by Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones, beginning with a bit of a send-off, an apparent reference to Vladeck’s former position at the University of Texas.
“Professor Vladeck has left the Fifth Circuit and the Fifth Circuit is happy to announce that Professor Vladeck will soon be criticizing the Ninth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit where I believe many initiatives of the Trump administration will find an immediate litigating home and a federal judiciary that is at least 90% appointed by presidents whose appointments have not been criticized,” Jones began.
Then the Reagan-appointed judge got to the heart of her critique.
“I hope to respond here today in defense of my colleagues — Fifth Circuit district judges — who came under relentless attacks during the last several years by certain professors,” she continued. “Including notably, Professor Vladeck, for what he considers close to unethical situations in litigation which have existed since the dawn of judging.”
Vladeck’s research into judge-shopping and forum-shopping has focused, in particular, on Texas federal district courts.
In the Lone Star State, whose federal courts fall under the purview of the Fifth Circuit — along with Louisiana and Mississippi — several trial courts are served by a lone judge. Thus, the process of forum-shopping becomes whittled down to judge-shopping — by filing in any given division, certain litigants are guaranteed to avoid a lottery assignment and obtain a particular judge in a surefire fashion.
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