House passes bill to expand judiciary

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By Caitlin Tremblay

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to add 66 new judges to understaffed federal courts nationally, a bill that outgoing President Joe Biden has threatened to veto after lawmakers only took up the measure after President-elect Donald Trump won the election. Nate Raymond has more.

The Republican-led House voted 236-173 in favor of legislation the Democratic-led Senate passed earlier this year. The bipartisan bill, once widely supported, would increase the number of trial court judges in 25 federal district courts in 13 states including California, Florida and Texas in six waves through 2035.

Hundreds of judges have taken the rare step of publicly advocating for the JUDGES Act, saying federal caseloads have increased more than 30% since Congress last passed legislation to comprehensively expand the judiciary.

The Lone Star state's appetite for litigation has been keeping several law firms busy working for the state in high-profile lawsuits against major U.S. companies. David Thomas and Mike Scarcella have more on the Texas-sized fees firms are raking in.

An already-vicious battle between Fox Corp's streaming subsidiary Tubi and mass arbitration pioneer Keller Postman reached new heights of vitriol on Tuesday. Keller Postman filed a motion to disqualify and sanction Tubi's lawyers at Jenner & Block, asserting that Jenner breached California ethics rules by engaging an ex-FBI agent to interview nearly two dozen Keller clients who had dropped their demands for arbitration against Tubi. Jenner told Alison Frankel on Wednesday that it did nothing wrong – and that interviews with onetime arbitration claimants prove Tubi's allegations that Keller Postman filed frivolous arbitration demands without informed consent from its clients.

Check out other recent pieces from our columnists: Alison Frankel and Jenna Greene

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caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

@ctrembz

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