A conservative judicial watchdog filed a formal complaint of misconduct against a federal judge in Florida for saying sex should be part of the determinative criteria for legal representation in multi-district litigation related to an injectable form of birth control.
The Article III Project (A3P) submitted the complaint Thursday against Judge M. Casey Rodgers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida for comments made during a First Case Management Conference “dealing with Depo-Provera, an injectable form of birth control, which is facing litigation.”
According to A3P, Judge Rodgers “discriminatorily suggested that sex should be a relevant factor in selecting leadership counsel for the multidistrict litigation,” stating, “females need to be adequately represented in your leadership.”
“This remark reflects an explicit preference for females in the allocation of professional roles and responsibilities,” the complaint reads. “By implying that sex — rather than qualifications, experience, or merit — should influence selection for MDL leadership, Judge Rodgers engaged in conduct that constitutes impermissible bias and judicial misconduct.”
“By suggesting that female attorneys should be prioritized for leadership roles based on the nature of the case, Judge Rodgers openly endorsed sex-based decision-making, which constitutes improper judicial favoritism and violates the principle of impartiality,” said Mike Davis, the founder and president of A3P. “It should go without saying that Judge Rogers’ statement that ‘that doesn’t mean I’m looking for every single leadership to be a female,’ does not somehow justify the express preference for women.”
Judge Rodgers, who is presiding over thousands of individual cases, was talking about the lead attorneys comprising the leadership committee for pre-trial purposes, who essentially represent all the cases, needing women to present the cases.
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