[whimsicalism]

no it's not, but i get that it's "in" to hate on the US political structure. essentially all federal cases are randomly assigned

[shagmin]

I don't think it's widespread by any means but the US Supreme Court has been directly pulled into this exact topic.

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/g-s1-28919/supreme-court-judg...

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/judg...

https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/03/27/judge-shopping-expl...

[whimsicalism]

this is more describing circuit shopping, which is a far cry from what OP is suggesting

[Yeul]

In my country judges don't get elected. They pretty much sit in their ivory tower and fuck up anyone they want.

Which is part of the reason why the Netherlands is not a superpower.

[dragonwriter]

Judges don't get elected in the US (except for some state and local judges) and yet the US is a superpower. I don't think judicial selection plays a major factor in determining superpower status.

Can you name any country that has ever been a superpower where judges (of the national judiciary if it has separate judiciaries for constituent parts from the national one) were predominantly democratically elected?

[nhinck2]

https://www.cigionline.org/articles/why-east-texas-ground-ze...

[whimsicalism]

I do think this is a great counterexample, but it is largely a bug in the law specific to patents that was closed in 2017. Even then, IIUC on appeal your case would still be randomized.