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Two weeks ago, I flagged an ethics complaint against an MDL judge who asked for “adequate female representation” on the plaintiffs’ leadership team she was appointing to run the MDL. The complaint has already been resolved: the judge admitted her request created an appearance of impropriety and took actions to correct that appearance.
I commend Judge Pryor’s order dismissing the complaint: it reiterates that it is illegal for judges to use race and gender to select lawyers for these lucrative roles, and it cites Justice Alito’s opinion in Martin v. Blessing that I referenced last week. But the order also acknowledges that MDL judges have not gotten Justice Alito’s message. Maybe his order is reinforcement enough. But maybe proposed rule 16.1 should make it clear that MDL judges should stop this practice?
