The federal judiciary on March 12 released its Annual Report for 2023.
The report highlighted some budgetary woes that plagued federal courts and the judicial branch as a whole last year. An initial March 2023 budget request of $9.1 billion shrank in November 2023 to $8.95 billion as Congress passed various stopgaps to temporarily fund government agencies and operations.
A rise in security threats contributed to an influx of new staff and additional funding for court-based security measures. Roughly 926 threats or inappropriate comments against court personnel were reported in 2015 compared to 2,710 incidents in 2023, according to the Marshals Service.
Overwhelmingly the branch asked for more federal judges in the report. Article III judges were specifically called out. Last year, federal courts relied in part on senior and visiting judges to aid with high caseloads.
But First, Budget
In March 2023, the judicial branch requested $9.1 billion in discretionary appropriations for fiscal year 2024. In that budget request, the judiciary asked for $783.5 million, or roughly 8.5% of its total request, to help pay for court security. A majority of requested funds for the current operating year for the judiciary, around $6.4 billion, was intended to cover salaries and other labor expenses.
The judiciary noted in the 2023 report that none of the 12 annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2024 were enacted into law before the Oct. 1, 2023, start of the fiscal year. A continuing resolution was enacted to keep the government operating through Nov. 17, 2023, and that resolution was extended through Jan. 19 for funding for some agencies and through Feb. 2 for others including the judiciary.
In November 2023, the judicial branch sent Congress an amended budget request for $8.95 billion, roughly $184 million less than its original request in March 2023.
The revised budget request asked for $6.2 billion for salaries and labor expenses, $1.5 billion for the Defender Services Account, $783.2 million for the Court Security Account and $50.6 million for juries.
For fiscal 2023, $8.5 billion was approved for the branch’s discretionary appropriations. In that approved request, $6.7 billion was allocated for salaries and labor costs, $1.5 billion went to the Defender Services Account, $822.2 million went to the Court Security Account and $59.6 million went to pay for juries.
The judiciary explained in the 2023 report that a multi-year initiative has been in the works “to mitigate the impact of increasing Judiciary financial requirements that are outpacing congressional funding.”
Security and Facilities
In the 2023 report, the branch noted a “new Judiciary Security Operations Branch hired 16 judiciary security officers to assist judges, their families and court staff with physical security and emergency preparedness.”
The new branch came about as part of the implementation of the Vulnerability Management Program. The judiciary explained the effort is a new one for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and “grew out of concern about increasing threats against federal judges in recent years.”
In 2023, around $127.5 million was allocated separately by Congress for court-based security measures. The judiciary explained in the 2023 report that “Courthouse security issues took on heightened importance following outbreaks of civil unrest around the country and the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol by election protestors.”
The AO is currently supporting building projects as part of a $2 billion commitment from Congress since fiscal 2016 for courthouse construction. Projects are in Vermont, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Connecticut and Mississippi. The judiciary noted a new plan for a federal facility in Puerto Rico is also underway.
Judges and Ethics
The judiciary in the 2023 report highlighted the need for additional “Article III judges” in federal courts. Article III judges serve lifetime appointments and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Article III judges include the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, all the circuit judges, district judges and all judges serving on the U.S. Court of International Trade.
As of Dec. 31, 2023, the judicial branch reported there were 59 Article III judgeships open and 28 future vacancies were announced with another 28 positions pending.
Last year, federal courts relied in part on senior and visiting judges to aid with high caseloads in courts nationwide. In fiscal 2023, 520 senior Article III judges participated in 24% of all courts of appeals cases that were terminated after oral hearing or submission on briefs, according to the report. Visiting Article III judges participated in 1,792 appeals closed after an oral hearing or on briefs and closed 712 civil cases.
The report also stated the AO hired and trained staff to implement the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, which was passed in 2022. The judiciary noted “the AO added thousands of judges’ financial disclosure reports to a new online database that provides public access to the reports and processed periodic transaction reports submitted by judges throughout the year.”
Following the introduction of several Congressional bills that would create a code of conduct for Supreme Court justices, the nation’s highest court on Nov. 11, 2023, released its own Code of Ethics. Law Week reported in November 2023 what was included in the code and published a follow-up article discussing the code with local ethics sources.
A PACER Update
The Public Access to Court Electronic Records service, also known as PACER, is getting an upgrade. The judiciary noted in the 2023 report the latest update to the widely-used service “will provide unified search functionality, aimed at making records searches easier, more intuitive, and user-friendly.” Specifically, the new system will be built in the cloud to make it more flexible and able to support a more efficient rollout of new features.
The branch stated the new system will run faster, allow for unified search, instead of needing to search for records at individual courts, support a full-text search and have “fuzzy” search logic so misspellings and similar words are pulled up.
Staffing, Workloads and Case Management
A new staffing formula was approved in September 2023 for federal defender offices, adding 197 full-time staff positions to keep up with workloads. A workload study was completed in 2023 and the new formulas are currently being used.
The report explained “large volumes of electronic discovery and incorporating social work and mitigation in public defense” contribute to high defender workloads. But the branch noted the expected funding levels will make hiring the additional staff difficult over the next two fiscal years.