Federal Judge Rejects Proposed Lead Counsel in Class Action Because Not Diverse Enough

Or Federal Judge trying to create and enforce social justice law out of thin air.

In a class action setting, Class counsel are appointed by the Court to lead the litigation on behalf of the class. For such practitioners, these appointments are the crux of their professional efforts.

This week, U.S. District Judge James Donato (Northern District of California), an Obama Appointee, overseeing the class action litigation against the securities trading platform Robinhood, rejected the request of attorneys from two firms to be appointed Interim class counsel because, among other things:

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The Court is concerned about a lack of diversity in the proposed lead counsel. For example, all four of the proposed lead counsel are men, which is also true for the proposed seven lawyers for the “executive committee” and liaison counsel.

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Fed. R. Civ. P. 42(g) contains no such requirement, focusing instead (and logically) on proposed counsel's experience, knowledge and ability to fairly and adequately represent the interests of the class.

For obvious reasons this measure is rare, one of the only few prior examples having been several years ago by another SJW federal judge, which was challenged to the SCOTUS. Although the Court ultimately denied review on standing grounds, Justice Alito strongly rebuked the ruling

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"I am hard-pressed to see any ground on which Judge Baer's practice can be defended...This Court has often stressed that “[r]acial discrimination has no place in the courtroom, whether the proceeding is civil or criminal.” Court-approved discrimination based on gender is similarly objectionable, and therefore it is doubtful that the practice in question could survive a constitutional challenge...Indeed, if the District Court's rule were taken seriously, it would seriously complicate the appointment process and lead to truly bizarre results."

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This and more discussion here.

Alito's Statement also provides many examples of how and why such a measure is nonsensical, e.g., difficulty or impossibility in determining "proper" class counsel diversity when class member demographics are rarely known or quantifiable.

The Progs are really attacking from every possible angle.