This week, the American Bar Association held its annual meeting. The House of Delegates adopted a resolution that opposed single-judge divisions:
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal courts to eliminate case assignment mechanisms that predictably assign cases to a single United States District Judge without random assignment when such cases seek to enjoin or mandate the enforcement of a state or federal law or regulation and where any party, including intervenor(s), in such a case objects to the initial, non-random assignment within a reasonable time; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges that, in such situations, case assignments are made randomly and on a district-wide rather than division-wide basis.
These resolutions have no force on their own. Indeed, I have written how the ABA's influence has waned significantly, so it is difficult to put much stock in these sorts of statements.
