Annual Report 2025

Director′s Message

Approaching the end of my second year as Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), I can’t recall a time when the branch faced so many serious and urgent concerns. These include insufficient funding, relentless cyberattacks on our systems, threats of impeachment and physical harm against judges, and the shortage of judges after a two-decade drought in the creation of new judgeships. 

Yet I also would have difficulty recalling a time of more resilience by my colleagues and coworkers during this turbulent past year. In spite of our differing views, the extraordinary public servants who work for the courts and for the AO remain united by what we share: our unshakable commitment to the administration of justice.

Evidence of that commitment surfaced in many ways in 2025. Here are just a few highlights from this report of how the Judiciary has met the growing challenges. 

The results of the first-ever national workplace survey of the Judiciary were released in March 2025. They showed that our employees have a high degree of pride and satisfaction in their work. Eighty-four percent reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs and 93 percent said they took pride in working for their court or employing office. 

In other respects, the survey results illuminated areas where we have more work to do. Notably, many employees reported a reluctance to seek help and report wrongful conduct in the workplace. In response to these findings, the Judiciary’s Workplace Conduct Working Group put forth new recommendations aimed at reducing potential barriers to reporting.

The deeply felt dedication to the branch evident in the survey results has much to do with the essential role of the courts in our democratic system. That mission is being tested by the ongoing threat to judicial independence.

Judges and justices appointed by both political parties have faced bullying, intimidation, and threats to themselves and their loved ones. In the past five years, the U.S. Marshals Service has investigated more than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges and justices. Threats like these go beyond legitimate criticism. They undermine the rule of law and our democracy.

In collaboration with our partners in law enforcement and the General Services Administration, we have strengthened security measures to protect judges and courthouses. This has been an excellent example of the Judiciary uniting in the face of adversity.

About 80 percent of all sitting federal judges have requested the removal of personally identifiable information from the internet. About three-quarters of judges have enrolled in a program that provides up-to-date home intrusion detection systems. Nationally, 63 facilities are undergoing courthouse hardening projects. And, the AO established a Judicial Security and Independence Task Force to provide support and guidance to judges under fire.

On another front, cyber threats also continued to escalate. During 2025, the AO accelerated replacement of its Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system.  As we have learned from painful experience, extensive analysis, and outside consulting, the CM/ECF and the related Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system are outdated and must be replaced with modern, secure systems. This is an existential issue for our branch, and we must unite to develop a centralized case management system that gives us confidence in its security.

Every court in the nation this past year had to cope with shrinking budgets that made it far more difficult to accomplish the essential job of administering justice. The Judiciary’s annual appropriations were held to a hard freeze for a second consecutive year.

As just one example of the fallout, courts were placed in the painful position of delaying payments to the court-appointed attorneys representing indigent clients around the country. Many of these seasoned defense lawyers continued working on their cases without reimbursement for five months. Eventually, some of them stopped accepting new cases, jeopardizing the courts’ ability to provide constitutionally necessary and timely representation.

At the beginning of fiscal year 2026, a political impasse in Congress over spending led to the longest government shutdown in history and forced the Judiciary to cease full paid operations for more than three weeks. It is hard to imagine that such volatility in the funding picture and annual budgets that cannot even keep pace with inflation are sustainable for us in the long term.

We are confronted with a shortage of judges. A carefully crafted bipartisan bill creating 66 new judgeships to be filled by successive administrations was finally approved by Congress in 2024 only to be vetoed by the President. It was a tough setback in a years-long effort. But a new request was approved and sent to Capitol Hill early in 2025. And it too has attracted interest from both political parties as awareness grows that no new judgeships have been added since 1990, even as case filings have climbed by 37 percent. My confidence in the eventual success of that legislation remains strong.

Even as we respond to the challenges of the present, the branch is focused on the future. In early 2025, an AO advisory Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force was established to enable the federal courts to effectively and responsibly confront AI. While presenting us with opportunities and potential benefits, the growing use of AI comes with concerns about maintaining high ethical standards, preserving the integrity of judicial opinions, and safeguarding sensitive data.

This group of judges, court executives, and IT and chambers staff from all court types was charged with recommending new or updated policies to the Judicial Conference. In the meantime, the task force was able to develop interim guidance for the courts that establishes temporary guideposts while more permanent guidance and policy are developed.

Judges across the country, supported by the AO, came together in regional and national forums to advance the cause of civics education and efforts to restore civility to public discourse in the United States. The federal courts’ second national civics conference — the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann Conference on Civics Education and the Federal Courts — brought together judges; court personnel; and representatives of civics education organizations, bar associations, and academic communities from across the nation to discuss current and future initiatives.

The court community also came together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the law that created the modern Probation and Pretrial Services system. Our officers play a vital role in protecting communities by enforcing court-ordered supervision conditions and by procuring services designed to reduce recidivism. It was a birthday we were happy to recognize and celebrate.

As we embark on a new year, our court community will find ways to sustain our commitment to the mission of the branch, to render equal justice under law, to preserve the independence of our federal courts, and to demonstrate the unity in the face of adversity that has become a hallmark of our branch.