&gt;the truth is a little more nuanced than a federal judge simply not believing in the precedential validity of binding precedent<p>Not much more nuanced. The EDTX judges have a tradition of making millions for themselves and their families through patent abuse in their courtrooms. Judges cannot be forced to apply &#x27;binding precedent&#x27; honestly if they don&#x27;t prefer to. The appeals court has the same problem.<p>&gt;I thought the general rule was that (subject to certain constraints) the plaintiff has some latitude in this.<p>That is the general rule, but it leads to abuse in IP cases, so Congress set a different rule.<p>By law, IP cases must be brought where the defendant resides. (28 USC §1400) The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -- the patent appeals court, as is its usual practice, nullified the law in the service of growing the patent troll court in Eastern Texas.