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A Music Business Legal Coup

The song industry successfully lobbied the Trump administration to topple the judicial regime that determined its fees. Now comes the blowback.

Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
June 5, 2023

For as long as I can remember, the Southern District of New York has used a delightfully antiquated method for assigning judges: spinning a wooden wheel. Over time, the wheel of justice gained notoriety in pop culture, making appearances in the Tom Brady “deflategate” saga and on Showtime’s Billions. It was even used to select the unlucky judge who oversaw Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s 9/11 trial. It’s regarded with a mixture of fatalism and awe by the circuit’s judges. “A beautiful thing,” Denise Cote once remarked.