A New Judge's Introduction to Federal Judicial Administration

1 A New Judge s Introduction toFederal Judicial AdministrationRussell WheelerFederal Judicial Center2003 This Federal Judicial Center publication was undertaken in furtherance ofthe Center s statutory mission to develop and conduct education programsfor the Judicial branch. The views expressed are those of the author and notnecessarily those of the Federal Judicial 1 National Agencies 4 Chief Justice of the United States 5 Supreme Court 5 Judicial Conference of the United States 6 Conference committees 9 Administrative Office of the Courts 10 Federal Judicial Center 10 Regional and Local Governance Elements 11 Circuit 11 Chief judge of the circuit 12 Circuit Judicial councils 13 Circuit executive 14 Circuit Judicial conference 15 Chief district judge and district court 15 Chief bankruptcy judge and bankruptcy court 16 Instruments of State Federal Judicial Relations 16 Concluding Commentary 17 Endnotes 18iiiFederal Judicial Administration1 IntroductionAs a new Federal judge, you will hear about organizations inWashington, , in your circuit, and in your court that tendto the Administration of the Federal Judicial system.

2 The federaljudicial administrative system is unlike those in most states. Thispamphlet provides a brief Introduction to the agencies and or-ganizations that see to the nonjudicial business of the courts,most of which were created by Congress or the Federal courtsthemselves. The Federal Judicial Administration chart on thefollowing pages shows the elements of governance. Not discussedhere are the United States Sentencing Commission or the Judi-cial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The commission is a quasi-legislative body that promulgates rules that govern panel transfers, for pretrial, actions pending in different dis-tricts that involve common questions of Federal Judicial system is smaller than the court sys-tems in many states. There are 13 intermediate Federal appellatecourts and 188 trial courts (94 district courts and 94 separatebankruptcy courts as units of each district court). There areabout 1,600 Federal judges, comprising more than 800 districtand court of appeals judges and about the same number of bank-ruptcy and magistrate judges.

3 There are about 30,000 support-ing personnel. Given its geographic breadth, however, the fed-eral Judicial system, even with its common set of laws andadministrative policies, embraces many diverse Judicial cultures,which reflect in part the different states and regions that com-pose instruments of Federal Judicial Administration accom-modate this diversity: a national council of judges (the JudicialConference of the United States), regional Judicial councils, andthe individual courts themselves. The Federal Judicial adminis-trative system is a product of accretion rather than specific de-sign, but it is a system that members of the governance and ad-ministrative agencies have affirmed several times. Most recently,2 Federal Judicial AdministrationCommittees of the Judicial ConferenceMembers: Judges, practicing lawyers, and legalscholars appointed by the Chief Justice, andex officio government : Make recommendations to theConference and, in a few cases, exercisestatutory Judicial AdministrationSupreme CourtApproves rule BranchParticipates in legislative process,transmits appropriations requests,provides buildings and security, isrepresented on rules funds, enacts legislationon court organization and jurisdiction,reviews procedural rule : Chief Justice (chair); chief judge and districtjudge from the twelve regional circuits; chief judge,Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; chief judge,Court of International : Sets national administrative policy for thefederal judiciary; approves appropriations requests forsubmission to Congress; recommends changes in rulesof procedure to the Supreme Court for submission toCongress.

4 Other statutory Conference of the United StatesChief Justice of theUnited StatesAdministrative Office of the CourtsThe Chief Justice appoints the director and deputydirector after consultation with Judicial : Provides, under Conference supervision,administrative support to courts (including budget,personnel, space and facilities), staff to JudicialConference and its committees, legislativecoordination, other Judicial CenterBoard: Chief Justice (chair); seven judges elected bythe Judicial Conference; Administrative Officedirector. Board appoints Center director and : Provides orientation and continuingeducation to judges and personnel of courts,research support to courts and Judicial Judicial Administration3 Federal Judicial Center 2003 Judicial Councils of the CircuitsMembers: Chief judge (chair); circuitand district judges in equal numbers;council size determined by majorityvote of all active circuit and : (1) Make necessary ordersfor Administration of justice within thecircuit (all judges and employees ofthe circuit are statutorily directed togive effect to council orders);(2) consider complaints of judicialmisconduct or disability under 351 364 if referred by thechief circuit judge; (3) review districtcourt plans in various administrativeareas, as required by statute or JudicialConference.

5 The circuit executive is thesecretary of the of Appeals, District Courts,Bankruptcy CourtsCourts, each with a chief judge andclerk of court, also develop andimplement administrative policy innumerous areas within theframework depicted Conferences of the CircuitsOptional circuit-wide meetings, calledno more than once a year by the chiefcircuit judge, about various topicsrelated to the Administration of Federal judges may attend, and eachcourt of appeals must adopt rules toprovide for participation by membersof the judges ofthe Sentencing CommissionMembers: Seven votingmembers appointed by thePresident (no more than threeof whom may be federaljudges) and two nonvoting exofficio : Promulgatessentencing guidelines andotherwise establishes federalsentencing policies as directedby the 1984 Sentencing Judicial Administrationthe Judicial Conference stated, In the interests of administra-tive efficiency, accountable resource utilization, and effectiveexternal relations, the present distribution of governance au-thority among the national, regional (circuit), and individualcourt levels should be preserved.

6 1 This pamphlet describes, in turn, national, regional, and localelements of Federal Judicial Administration , and then agenciesconcerned with state Federal Judicial AgenciesWithin the Judicial branch, the key administrative officials andagencies are the Chief Justice of the United States, the JudicialConference of the United States and its committees, the Admin-istrative Office of the Courts, and the Federal Judicial Cen-ter. Although the Judicial branch is responsible for its own ad-ministration, Congress and the executive branch influence thatadministration. Most important, Congress annually provides ap-propriations to a large account that funds the salaries and ex-penses of most of the courts and to smaller accounts that fundseparate items (such as the Supreme Court, the administrativeagencies, fees for jurors, and the Federal defender program).Congress acts on requests developed and defended by judgesand Judicial branch officials.

7 By law, the Judicial branch submitsits requests for inclusion in the overall government budget thatthe President forwards to Congress each January, and executiveofficials must include the submissions unchanged. (The execu-tive branch has in recent years commented on the judicialbranch s requests, however, and that has been a point of conten-tion.)Congress also determines the size and structure of the judi-cial system, and Congress s authority to enact substantive andappropriations legislation gives it an oversight role in judicialbranch operations. The executive branch affects Federal judicialadministration by its participation in the legislative process, andby its responsibility to provide buildings and security for thecourts through the General Services Administration and the Judicial Administration5 Chief Justice of the United StatesThe Chief Justice is at the apex of the judiciary s governancepyramid. By law, the Chief Justice presides over the JudicialConference, selects the Administrative Office s director anddeputy director, and chairs the Board of the Federal JudicialCenter.

8 Moreover, the Chief Justice speaks to Congress and thenation regarding the Judicial branch s needs and activities; forexample, since the 1980s, the Chief Justice has released a Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, which includes not onlyfederal court workload data but also commentary on such mat-ters as unfilled judgeships and Judicial Chief Justice must balance these court governance taskswith the role of leader of the Supreme Court. Either role mightseem to be more than a full-time job in itself, but administrativeassistance is available from the Judicial Conference s ExecutiveCommittee and officials who direct the Judicial branch s sup-port agencies. The Chief Justice also appoints an administrativeassistant;2 the legislative history of the statute creating that of-fice clearly contemplated that the administrative assistant woulddeal largely with matters of court governance and Chief Justice has considerable latitude in meeting theformal and informal expectations of the position.

9 Observers haveoccasionally argued that the demands now placed on the ChiefJustice are too great and that some part of the job should bedelegated to a high-ranking Judicial official ( , a Chancellorfor the Federal Courts ), but those proposals have attracted CourtThe Supreme Court s associate justices have practically no for-mal role in Federal Judicial Administration . This situation distin-guishes the Court from the highest courts of many states, and itreflects a conscious decision by Congress and Judicial leaders in1939 to vest supervision of the newly created AdministrativeOffice in the Judicial Conference rather than in the Court. ChiefJustice Hughes supported that decision, on the view that mem-6 Federal Judicial Administrationbers of the Court had little firsthand experience in the adminis-trative processes and problems facing the courts of appeals anddistrict Court s only governance task involves reviewing amend-ments to the Federal Rules of Evidence and of Procedure for-warded by the Judicial Conference.

10 The Court, in its discretion,may promulgate these amendments, although there is a statu-tory layover period during which Congress can block their tak-ing Promulgating the amendments is usually a formality,but the Court has occasionally disapproved amendments basedon their substance, and some justices have said that the Courtshould not give its sanction to rules that may later be challengedin , participants in the governance process lamentthe justices non-participation. One wrote, for example, that thework of the Conference committees would benefit from the jus-tices However, there has been no serious effort tochange the status Conference of the United StatesThe Judicial Conference is, for practical purposes, a nationalfederal Judicial council (and was sometimes called that in itsearly years). Today, unlike the Judicial councils in most of thestates,7 the Federal Judicial Conference comprises judges onlyand exercises actual power over the Administration of the judi-cial branch.