Relman Colfax has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National Fair Housing Alliance, National Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, UnidosUS and Raza Development Fund in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, supporting the federal government’s efforts to modernize its regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”). The case, Texas Bankers Association, et al. v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, et al., was brought by banking industry groups seeking to block the regulations. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the lone Judge in the Amarillo Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, issued a preliminary injunction, which is now on appeal to the Fifth Circuit
The CRA is an essential tool in helping to combat discrimination and ensure economic empowerment for all consumers. The CRA rule has not been amended for nearly 30 years. In that time, the lending industry has changed dramatically. The updated rule, as NFHA has explained, “is designed to address 21st century banking practices and ensure covered companies are not engaging in redlining activities and truly meeting the credit needs of the communities where they do business.” Amici support federal regulators’ efforts and their legal arguments on the merits. Amici’s brief, however, focuses on another issue raised by the District Court’s ruling: the judge-shopping that the industry groups challenging the regulations used to hand-pick their judge.
Judge-shopping is the disfavored practice of filing a lawsuit in a single-judge district with no demonstrable connection to the underlying dispute in order to guarantee that the case is assigned to a favorable judge. Most judicial districts randomly assign cases to judges, for important reasons; random assignment ensures public confidence in the impartiality of judicial proceedings and allows courts to manage their workloads. But judge-shopping is still possible in a few divisions, such as the Amarillo Division, that assign all cases to one judge. The conservative legal movement and certain industry groups are increasingly exploiting this loophole. In response, the Judicial Conference of the United States earlier this year issued guidance recommending that District Courts assign cases randomly among all judges in a judicial district, particularly where the matter has nationwide implications.
In this case, banking groups filed their challenge to the new CRA regulations in the single-judge Amarillo District to ensure that Judge Kacsmaryk would hear the case. As Amici explain in their brief, Judge Kacsmaryk has repeatedly issued nationwide injunctions striking down important government regulations that affect historically marginalized groups. The industry organizations that brought this case are located in Washington, D.C. and have no connection to Amarillo. Their transparent judge-shopping has undermined public confidence in the impartiality of these proceedings, does tangible harm to the public interest in an impartial judicial process, and underscores the importance of adherence to the Judicial Conference guidance. For these reasons, in addition to those laid out by the government’s brief, Amici urge the Fifth Circuit to vacate the District Court’s decision and remand with instructions to transfer the case to a more appropriate jurisdiction.
The Relman Colfax team includes Ellora Israni, Ken Scott, Reed Colfax, and John Relman, with assistance from our paralegal Jazmin Trenco and former paralegal Emma Block.
A copy of the amicus brief is here.