Sidebar: Shopping for the perfect court

In the past few years, there's been an explosion of nationwide injunctions coming from single-judge divisions in the federal court system. These judges were handpicked by the people filing these lawsuits.

You may have heard of one: U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. With Kacsmaryk's rulings, Texas has been able to dictate federal discrimination guidance for transgender employees and commandeer the Biden administration's immigration policies. He also tried to limit abortion access nationwide, issuing a ruling that would have removed the abortion drug mifepristone from shelves across the country.

In Sidebar's seventh episode this season, we bring you the inside baseball of judge shopping. Federal rules govern how many judges are assigned to a court, and when a court has a division with only one judge at the helm, it becomes easier to know who will hear your case.

Special guests:

• Brook Gotberg, law professor at Brigham Young University
• Laura Coordes, law professor at Arizona State University
• Steve Vladeck, law professor at the University of Texas at Austin
• Jonas Anderson, law professor at the University of Utah

Sidebar tackles the top stories you need to know from the legal world. Join reporters Hillel Aron, Kirk McDaniel, Amanda Pampuro and Kelsey Reichmann as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. and beyond and break down developments to help you understand how they affect your day-to-day life.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens. A transcript is available.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross. Special thanks to Benjamin S. Weiss.

Court shopping in the news:

• Judicial Conference adopts rule to curb judge shopping
• The next big abortion fight sits before a Texas judge
• Purdue’s Sackler family wins protections on opioid liability

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