News and Announcements

The year 2016 was a time of innovation and progress at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), the agency reported today in two releases detailing its activities and programs over the 12-month period.

The Judicial Conference of the United States today agreed to recommend to Congress the creation of 57 new Article III judgeships in the courts of appeals and district courts. If an omnibus judgeship bill is enacted into law, it would be first new comprehensive judgeship legislation to take effect in more than 26 years.

The stories of six federal judges, who overcame various obstacles on their paths to the bench, are highlighted as part of the U.S. courts’ observance of Women’s History Month. 

The role of the jury in protecting the rights of Americans in criminal and civil cases is the focus of a U.S. Courts video discussion featuring two U.S. district judges, a clerk of court, and a law professor and author on the jury process. 

Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., announced the appointment of Lee Ann Bennett, the clerk of the Bankruptcy Court of the Middle District of Florida, as the new deputy director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. 

Thurgood Marshall was one of the country's greatest jurists and civil rights advocates, but he was also a gifted storyteller who liked to leaven even a serious tale with a sprinkling of humor.

Calling it a “modest but much-needed reform,” the chair of the Judicial Conference’s Criminal Law Committee has urged Congress to protect federal probation officers, by giving them the legal authority to give orders to, and arrest if needed, anyone obstructing them from performing their official duties.

Expanding an approach that has helped lower recidivism by federal offenders under supervision, probation officials are seeking to better protect the public by using actuarial data to help them identify those offenders most likely to become violent.

For years, polls have shown widespread ignorance of how government works, with courts and the Constitution faring especially poorly in the public consciousness. But federal courts throughout the Second Circuit, which includes New York, Connecticut and Vermont, have launched an ambitious program to change that.

During the 12-month period ending December 31, 2016, 794,960 cases were filed in federal bankruptcy courts, down from the 844,495 bankruptcy cases filed in calendar year 2015—a 5.9  percent drop in filings.