The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will integrate President Joe Biden’s challenge to private employers’ COVID-19 vaccine authorization, and the panel will be led by a judge appointed by the Republican Party.

The Cincinnati-based court was selected by a random lottery using table tennis on Tuesday, a procedure used when multiple courts challenge actions of certain federal agencies.

This choice may be good news for those who challenge the government’s vaccine requirements, including officials and employers in 27 Republican-led states, as well as several conservative and business organizations. They argued that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no authority to enforce this task.

This month, 12 circuit courts raised these challenges, and some unions said that vaccine authorizations were not enough. Under a mysterious system, the clerk of the multi-district litigation judicial team needs to choose a ping pong ball from the trash can to choose where to hear the case.

This is a favorable result for the Republican Party. Eleven of the 16 full-time judges on the Sixth Circuit were appointed by the Republican president. Considering that one of the judges appointed by the Republican Party, Helene White, often sided with the judges appointed by the Democratic Party and added senior judges who are semi-retired but still hearing cases, this difference is 19-9 in favor of the Republic. party. The six full-time judges are appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Another court where most judges are nominated by Republicans, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, issued a ruling that suspended this task.

It is not clear whether the court hearing this case will stand with Republican challengers as quickly as the Fifth Circuit. However, in recent years, legal experts have paid more and more attention to the politicization of federal and state courts, which has raised questions about whether justice is executed fairly or distributed through a partisan perspective.

Allison Orr Larsen, a professor at the William and Mary Law School, co-authored a study published this year that found that partisan bias in federal judicial decisions has become increasingly serious. For decades, the study has found that rulings in cases where all judges in a circuit court weigh in are usually not based on the party line of the president who appointed the judges.

“Starting in 2018, we did see a worrying spike, which made us rack our brains,” Larson said in an interview.

Among the judges appointed by the presidents of the two parties, it can be seen that partisan disputes in government departments that should ignore partisan politics are increasing, but Larsen said that it is not clear why this is happening or whether it will continue.

When Donald Trump was president and the Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate, some federal courts moved to the right, which confirmed the judicial nominee. Trump appointed 54 judges for the Circuit Court, one level below the U.S. Supreme Court, including filling a seat twice. This accounts for nearly 30% of the seats in the circuit courts, where cases are most often heard by a panel of three judges.

Trump’s appointees handed the 11th South Circuit to Republican control and expanded the Republican majority of seats in the 5th, 6th, and 8th circuits in the Midwest and South. Biden’s three appointees changed New York’s second tour to Democratic control.

Republican state attorneys and conservative groups mostly challenged in circuit courts dominated by conservative judges, while unions went to circuit courts composed of more judges nominated by the Democratic president.

A total of 34 objections related to all 11 regional tournaments and one in the District of Columbia. This is where table tennis comes into play.

According to federal law, if a lawsuit is filed in multiple circuit courts, the cases questioning the actions of a federal agency will be merged in accordance with the agency’s requirements. Every tournament that is challenged within the first 10 days of the agency’s action has an equal chance of being selected.

According to a court document submitted by the team on Tuesday, the team’s clerk, John W. Nichols, selected a table tennis ball from the trash can. The office rejected the Associated Press’ request to allow the media to access the drawings.

Earlier this year, the lottery was only used to allocate two cases. One involved the impact of the National Labor Relations Commission’s ruling on Tesla founder Elon Musk’s anti-union Twitter message, in which opponents filed objections in two circuit courts. The other is an order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in which opponents submitted three orders.

The employer’s vaccine authorization is more compelling and broader. It called on companies with more than 100 employees to require employees to be vaccinated or wear masks before January 4 and be tested for COVID-19 every week. Exemptions are available for religious reasons and those who work at home or only work outdoors.

Because this is an unusual regulation of workplace safety agencies, lawyers have not reached a consensus on the direction of the challenge. In the half century since its inception, OSHA has issued only 10 emergency rules. Of the six people challenged in court, only one was intact.

The Biden administration insists that it has a strong legal basis. It was also supported by the American Medical Association, which submitted documents supporting the authorization.

“AMA’s extensive review of the medical literature shows that the FDA-authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and that widespread use of these vaccines is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace,” the organization said in its filing .

A consortium of building contractors challenged this rule. They said they want their employees to be vaccinated, but the requirement only for large companies only prompts employees who are hesitant about the vaccine to work in companies with fewer than 100 employees.

Scott Casabona, chairman of the Alliance of Signing Wall and Ceiling Contractors, said: “Making a rule that does not work will not help vaccinating construction workers. This method is not only wrong, it may be counterproductive. “

Officials from the workplace safety agency said they are considering expanding the scope of authorization to smaller employers.

A panel of three judges from the Fifth Circuit extended the OSHA rule in an opinion issued last Friday, expressing doubts about whether the agency has the authority to implement vaccine requirements. The Sixth Circuit can modify, revoke or extend the suspension.

It has not yet been determined which judges of the Sixth Circuit will participate in the three-judge panel to hear the case, or whether it will be considered by all judges.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment on the court’s choice.