The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from the Mountain Valley Pipeline to have a new panel of judges reconsider permits that have been repeatedly denied, according to the Associated Press.

The court denied the motion in a one-sentence order filed late last Wednesday. 

Mountain Valley Pipeline had filed the motion last month asking for a new panel to be assigned at random. It asserted the court didn’t follow its internal operating procedures to randomly assign three-member panels for incoming cases and argued the court’s continued rejection of government approvals — often by the same three judges — threatens the public’s confidence in the court.

The other side of the argument is that court rules allow for judges to remain with a case sometimes when it comes up again and keeping the same judges on similar cases allows them to be more efficient as they are more familiar with the history of the cases and their complex issues.

Learn more: Daily Press > Court rejects natural gas pipeline’s request for new panel of judges to reconsider permits