The Chief Judge of the Northern District of Texas Responds to Senator Schumer

A couple of weeks in the past, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer despatched a letter to Chief Choose Godbey of the Northern District of Texas. Schumer wrote, in so many phrases, That is a very nice courtroom you have got there, it will be a disgrace if one thing occurred to it.

On Tuesday, Choose Godbey wrote a two-page response to Schumer. He made a number of necessary factors

First, the proposals to outright eradicate single-judge divisions disregard how litigation works in distant locations like Amarillo or Wichita Falls.

The allocation of instances amongst our judges is a fancy matter. Along with the truthful administration of justice, we should additionally take into account: the quantity and kind of civil and prison instances filed in a division, which varies considerably from division to division; the comfort of the jurors, witnesses, events, and attorneys; the need of communities to have native judges; the burden of journey on courtroom personnel; and the necessity to present judicial assist for divisions with no resident district choose. Our system of case allocation amongst accessible judicial officers is one which has developed through the years to fulfill the actual wants of our District, and we continually reevaluate it.

Second, Choose Godbey opined on the sheer measurement of the Northern District of Texas, which isn’t corresponding to the Northern District of New York:

The Northern District of Texas has some uncommon traits that additionally require consideration. First, the District is geographically massive. It encompasses greater than 96,000 sq. miles. That’s roughly 75% bigger than your entire State of New York. It stretches greater than 400 miles throughout, each North to South and East to West. Additionally it is numerous, together with the dense, city Dallas/Fort Value Metroplex, in addition to sparsely populated rural counties in our North, West, and South reaches.

The gap from the southernmost portion of New York (Staten Island, my hometown) to the Northernmost portion (close to the Canadian border) is just 350 miles. And the same dynamic applies to the Southern District of Texas. The gap from Houston (the northernmost portion of the Southern District) to Brownsville (close to the Mexican border) is about 350 miles. Then once more, the Southern District of New York stretches all the best way from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie (about 85 miles). I notice Senator Schumer might imagine the world ends past the Hudson, however there’s a number of America that wants entry to justice.  And I say this as a former New Yorker who received to Texas as quick as I may. Guidelines that apply to dense states like New York wouldn’t make sense for sparse states like Texas.

Third, Choose Godbey explains why “random” assignments wouldn’t work.

So the random task of all civil instances throughout this District would current logistical challenges far past these of the smaller districts you point out, or the random task of a small slice of civil instances resembling patent instances.

Judges who’re stationed in Dallas with their employees can’t be anticipated to journey a whole lot of miles away for random instances. And no, justice can not all the time be allotted on Zoom.

Godbey’s final level is essentially the most important. The Chief Choose doesn’t have the unilateral energy to make this alteration.

I additionally convey to your consideration a provision of our Native Guidelines which requires that the district judges as a complete decide the strategy by which instances are assigned to particular person judges. See L. Civ. R. 83.3. It is not uncommon for the Chief Choose to tweak the proportion task to specific judges after session with the affected judges, which I did within the Orders you cite. However, I’m not licensed to impose unilaterally a brand new methodology of case allocation for our District.

I’m effectively conscious that in 2016, Choose Godbey’s predecessor reassigned 15% of instances from the Wichita Falls division to herself. That was a controversial determination on the time, and one which was by no means absolutely justified. And Choose Godbey reversed that call in 2022. And I feel Choose Godbey precisely states the foundations.

My earlier writing on single-judge divisions might be discovered right here and right here.