Bloomberg reports that “U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington {DC] said Friday he would keep the case against Aetna Inc.’s deal for Humana Inc., leaving the challenge to Anthem Inc.’s takeover of Cigna Corp. to another judge. Bates kept the Aetna case because it’s on a tighter deadline with its merger agreement expiring at the end of the year.” The article adds that “The Anthem case was assigned to Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama.”

Judge Berman promptly issued the following scheduling orderin the Anthem / Cigna merger case:

In light of the August 5, 2016 reassignment of United States v. Anthem, Inc. to this Court 41 , the Court has reviewed the status reports submitted by the parties 28 , 29 , and 30 , the transcript of the status conference held in this case and in United States v. Aetna, 16-1494 on August 4, 2016 39 , as well as the Order issued in both cases on August 5, 2016 40 . Since this Court agrees that it is advisable to appoint a single Special Master to facilitate efficient discovery in both of these cases, the parties to the Anthem case are directed to submit any recommendations concerning that appointment to this Court, as well as to the court in United States v. Aetna, by filing them on the docket in both cases by 5:00 pm on August 8, 2016. A scheduling conference will be held in Courtroom 3 on Friday, August 12 at 10:00 am. The parties are further ordered to meet and confer and submit a joint report pursuant to L.Cv.R. 16.3 by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, August 10. The report should include a proposed discovery schedule as well as each side’s current best estimate as to the amount of time needed to present its case assuming that some portion of the evidence may be submitted in the form of written testimony well in advance of trial, and it should address counsels’ availability — and identify any dates on which they are not available — in December 2016 and January 2017.