BOASBERG Act

Key Points

• The bill requires every federal district and circuit court to randomly assign civil cases to judges, so lawyers and litigants can no longer pick a specific judge or courthouse they think will favor them.
• If the Supreme Court reverses, vacates, or stays a district court ruling, the case must automatically be pulled from that judge and randomly reassigned to a different judge.
• Courts of appeals must also randomly assign judges to panels and randomly assign panels to cases, closing off ways that judges or chief judges could steer a case to a preferred panel.
• Courts must publish their assignment rules publicly, explain in writing any time a case is reassigned, and issue yearly statistical reports on reassignment rates.
• Anyone who tries to cheat the random assignment system faces consequences: lawyers can be sanctioned or have their case dismissed, judges face the judicial misconduct process, and court staff can be disciplined or fired.
• Courts have 120 days after the law is enacted to write and adopt the new random assignment rules required by the bill.