Vol. 37, Number 4—April 2005

Federal Courts Respond
to E-Government Act

The vast majority of the nation's nearly 200 federal courts satisfy or exceed requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002, the Judicial Conference reports.

"The Judiciary remains committed to providing a high level of electronic public access to court information," Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham, the Conference secretary, said in a letter to congressional leaders.

"The courts have made great strides in complying with the requirements of the E-Government Act and will continue to do so," he said in the Conference's annual report to four House and Senate committees.

Mecham reported that only 21 courts have forwarded notices of deferral on the availability of certain information that was to be on their websites by April 16, 2005. Fifteen of those courts expect to meet or exceed the Act's requirements by the end of 2005, he said.

One provision of the Act requires that all federal courts have a website that by April 16 provides "access to the substance of all written opinions issued by the court... in a text searchable format." Nineteen courts are deferring that requirement. Seven of those 19 report that they already make electronic versions of opinions available to the public through their websites, but the opinions are scanned versions of paper documents and thus do not meet the text-searchability requirement.

Two courts are deferring the requirement that they provide access on their websites to standing orders or local rules because of specific short-term projects that could not be completed by the April 16 deadline.