A bill to amend title 28, United States Code, concerning case assignment procedures for district and circuit courts to ensure randomized case assignments.
Key claim: Senate bill S5148 would amend title 28 of the U.S. Code to require randomized case assignment procedures for federal district and circuit courts.
Abstract
(S5148 · 119th Congress) Latest action (2026-07-28): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Why this matters
Randomized case assignment addresses due-process concerns about judge-shopping, where litigants (including states and advocacy groups) file in divisions with a high probability of drawing a preferred judge to obtain nationwide injunctions or favorable rulings. Standardizing random assignment across districts and circuits would affect litigants across the ideological spectrum by making the identity of the assigned judge less predictable, which proponents frame as neutrality and critics may frame as reducing local judicial expertise.