The federal judiciary announced Tuesday a new rule aimed at mitigating so-called judge shopping strategies, a controversial practice where litigants single out a particular judge to hear their case. The practice has come under bipartisan scrutiny in recent years.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the advisory body of the federal judiciary, announced the changes following its semiannual meeting on Tuesday, saying certain cases would now be randomly assigned to a judge within an entire district rather than merely within the division where the lawsuits are filed, according to a press release.