Journalist's Guide
This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of the U.S. legal system. If not, you may want to peruse Understanding the Federal Courts, a publication of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The Administrative Office, based in Washington, D.C., is the federal Judiciary’s central support agency, providing various services to federal courts. It has an Office of Public Affairs, 202-502-2600, which may be able to help you.
Whether you’re reporting about a high-profile case or your new full-time beat is the federal courthouse, you’ll find that covering a federal trial court or appellate court is quite unlike reporting on the other two branches of government. Among the most notable differences:
- Some legal terms are hard to understand. You don’t need a law degree to cover the federal courts, but a big part of your job will be translating legal jargon and procedures for your readers or viewers. This guide should help. When in doubt, check out the guide’s glossary or another reference tool.
- Rules. Rules. Rules. There are layers upon layers of rules: Rules that govern all federal cases; rules that govern all cases in your local federal court; rules that govern all cases before a particular judge. Understanding the rules – and their exceptions – will greatly inform your coverage.
- Judges do their own work. Federal judges work largely alone. Each judge has law clerks, who usually join the court for one year soon after graduation from law school. They assist with legal research and may help draft sections of opinions or orders, but judges make the decisions and take the leading role in explaining them.
Insiders often refer to district court judges and appellate court judges as Article III judges, because their terms of service are governed by Article III of the U.S. Constitution. They are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Bankruptcy judges are not Article III judges. They are not appointed by the president, but by the courts of appeals. There are no constitutional requirements to serve as a federal judge, but in modern times all judges have been lawyers
Like the Supreme Court justices, federal circuit and district judges serve for life, provided they exhibit good behavior. They can be removed from office only by a trial of impeachment in the U.S. Senate. Their salaries, which are set by Congress, cannot be reduced while they are in office. All appellate court judges receive the same salary, no matter where they serve. The same is true for district court judges.
Each district court judge sits in one of the 94 federal judicial districts. There is at least one judicial district in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The territorial courts in the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Marianna Islands have judges appointed for 10-year terms rather than for life. Each district may have multiple divisions. Each division typically has its own courthouse and judges hearing cases that arise in that particular geographic location. There are formal names of U.S. district courts. For instance: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “Manhattan federal trial court” is how a reporter might shorten it.
Each district court is located within one of the nation’s 12 regional judicial circuits. The 12 regional courts of appeals serve as intermediate courts in the federal system, and are required to hear any appeal brought at the conclusion of a district court case by a criminal defendant or by the losing party in a civil action. Decisions of the courts of appeals may be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the nation’s highest court has total discretion to determine whether it will hear the appeal. It grants full review only to a tiny percentage of the cases that reach it each year.
Senior judges are partially retired Article III judges. There is no requirement that judges take senior status because there is no mandatory retirement age for Article III judges. Judges are eligible to take senior status if they are at least 65 and have at least 15 years on the bench, or any combination of age and years of service thereafter that equals 80. Senior judges continue to draw their former salary, but may handle a reduced caseload. They are required to handle at least one-fourth of the workload of an active judge to qualify for future salary increases. By taking senior status, even if maintaining a full caseload, a judge creates a vacancy on the court, to be filled by the nomination/confirmation process.
Visiting judges, like senior judges, can help a court stay on top of its caseload. Visiting judges have long provided significant assistance to courts they visit. Article III judges may sit by designation and assignment in any other federal court having a need for their services. They provide temporary assistance not only when a court’s own judges must disqualify themselves, but also to help meet the caseload needs arising from vacancies, lack of sufficient judgeships, specific emergencies, and other workload imbalances.
About U.S. Courts | Newsroom | Library | Court Links | FAQs
Employment Opportunities | Contact Us | Search
This page is maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts. The purpose of this site is to function as a clearinghouse for information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government.