INSIDE THIS ISSUE Federal Judiciary Asks for Funding to Maintain Current Service Levels Court File Access Weighed in Public Hearing More Judges Needed to Clear Caseload Logjam in Border Courts Congressional Subcommittee Leadership Named Public Access to Court Documents: Better, Faster ... and Cheaper Than Ever Before 2001 Director's Awards Honor Efforts of Three in Federal Courts FBA President Builds Effective Bench/Bar Relations Judicial Milestones Judicial Boxscore Judges Tacha and Arnold to Head Judicial Branch Committee

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Federal Judiciary Asks for Funding to Maintain Current Service Levels

FJC Director Judge Fern Smith, Chief Judge Lawrence L. Piersol (D.S.D), Judge John G. Heyburn II (W.D.Ky.), and AO Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham presented the Judiciary's budget request at a House hearing last month

Tying the Judiciary's ability to provide the level of service citizens deserve to the resources provided by Congress, representatives of the Judicial Conference asked a House appropriations subcommittee to provide an operating budget of $4.86 billion for the Judiciary for fiscal year 2002.

"An independent Judiciary that all of our citizens trust and respect is a fundamental tenet of our nation," Judge John G. Heyburn II (W.D. Ky.), chair of the Judicial Conference Budget Committee, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies last month. "In order to foster that independence, citizens must believe that their disputes will be resolved in a fair and expeditious manner. To do so requires a commitment by the Congress to provide the courts adequate resources. Our request before you today provides a blueprint of those resource requirements."

Heyburn was accompanied by Chief Judge Lawrence L. Piersol (D. S.D.), a member of the Budget Committee; Leonidas Ralph Mecham, Director of the Administrative Office; and Judge Fern Smith, Director of the Federal Judicial Center.

This was the first time the Judiciary presented its budget request to Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), who is the new chair of the subcommittee. "I'm overall sympathetic to what you are trying to do," Wolf said at the hearing. "The problem we are going to have is numbers and allocation." He told the Judiciary representatives the budget outlook for both was bleak.

During the hearing the subcommittee was shown a videotape, Crisis in the Border Courts, which deals with workload problems facing courts on the southwest border.

"Most of these issues are not partisan issues; they're just good government," Wolf said. Heyburn and Mecham pointed to the severe need for eight new judgeships for the over-worked District of Southern California and new judgeships for each of the other four districts that border Mexico.

The $610 million requested increase in appropriations over fiscal year 2001 is necessary to maintain the current level of staff and operations and to allow the courts to handle growing workload and other critical needs. Heyburn described the resource needs of the federal Judiciary in the following areas: an appropriate level of compensation for private panel attorneys; a level of judicial officers and support staff commensurate with the workload placed upon them; an adequate level of security in the courthouses; and adequate compensation for judicial officers. He also reminded the subcommittee that the Judicial Conference is requesting the creation of 54 Article III judgeships. "There has not been a major judgeship bill since 1990," Heyburn told the subcommittee. "Yet increases in federal jurisdiction and law enforcement resources over that period have contributed to a more than 25 percent increase in workload for the Judiciary."

Defender Services

The Judiciary seeks a $113 an hour rate of pay for private panel attorneys in FY 2002. "One of the biggest impediments to maintaining a fair system of justice is the low rate of pay that private panel attorneys receive," Heyburn told the subcommittee. "In some districts, judges are unable to find qualified attorneys to take many Criminal Justice Act appointments because the current rate often does not cover overhead costs." An increase in resources for Defender Services also is required to provide counsel for 5,200 additional representations projected for FY 2002.

Court Support Staff

The Judiciary has asked for an increase of 212 new court support positions, most of which will be for probation and pretrial services offices, which currently supervise almost 129,000 offenders—4,000 more than the number of inmates in federal prisons. The daily cost of supervision in the community in FY 1999 was $7.74 compared to $59.41 for the Bureau of Prisons. Adequate staffing determines how closely officers can monitor the activities of dangerous convicted felons released from prison who pose a significant safety risk to the public. The fiscal year request includes a $5.2 million increase to support necessary mental health and substance abuse treatment for offenders.

Court Security

Congress was unable to find sufficient resources to meet court security needs in FY 2001. The FY 2002 court security request addresses those unmet needs, particularly in replacing inadequate and out-dated equipment. In addition, it would fund court security officers and equipment for new buildings coming online in FY 2002. And while not a part of the Judiciary's budget request, Heyburn and Mecham also urged Congress to fund the U.S. Marshals Service, which is experiencing severe personnel resource deficiencies nationwide. These deficiencies directly affect the security of courthouses, judges, court proceedings, and the public who enter federal courthouses, as well as the transportation and security of prisoners and fugitive apprehensions.

Judicial Compensation

Over the past eight years, judges have seen the purchasing power of their pay decline by over 13 percent, which amounts to more than $16,000 per year. The Judicial Conference at its March 2001 meeting strongly encouraged Congress to authorize an Employment Cost Index adjustment for federal judges, Members of Congress, and top executive branch officials in 2002; to enact legislation giving judges and other high-level federal officials a catch-up pay adjustment of 9.6 percent to recapture previous lost ECI adjustments; and to authorize a presidential commission to consider and make recommendations within 90 days on appropriate salaries for high-level officials in all three branches of government.