Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: History, Operations, and Current Issues

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: History, Operations, and Current Issues

Order Code RS21847
May 24, 2004
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts:
History, Operations, and Current Issues
name redacted
Analyst in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Summary
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) is the principal
administrative agency of the judicial branch. Originally created by Congress to improve
the supervision of the federal courts and to give the federal judicial branch greater
managerial independence from the executive branch, the AO is charged with a number
of important tasks. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a principal area of
concern for the AO has been courthouse security and emergency preparedness. In
addition, the AO is currently decentralizing its budget process and improving the
judicial branch’s technology capabilities.
This report examines the organization and duties of the AO. It also looks at the
agency’s origins and three current significant issues concerning the agency. This report
will be updated as developments warrant.
Organization and Duties
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) was created by Congress
in 1939 to provide administrative support to the federal courts. Its director and deputy
director, who are charged with supervising the agency, are appointed and may be removed
by the Chief Justice of the United States in consultation with the Judicial Conference.1
The current director is Leonidas Ralph Mecham, who has served in this capacity since
1985; but there has been no deputy director since 1993.2
1 28 U.S.C. § 601.
2 The last deputy director of the AO was James E. Macklin, Jr., who served from 1985 to 1993.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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By statute, the director is responsible for carrying out the administrative functions
of the AO,3 but he has delegated many of these responsibilities to the AO staff.4 The
current organizational structure of the AO includes the director, two associate directors,
and 11 offices that report to the director.5 Each office generally performs the delegated
duties of the director: all actions performed by AO employees “shall have the same force
and effect as though performed by” the director.6
The director “serves as the chief administrative officer of the federal courts” under
the supervision of the Judicial Conference.7 The director is charged with supervising all
administrative matters of the federal courts, which include examining the federal court’s
dockets; auditing the accounts of the courts; regulating the judicial retirement fund, pay
and annuities to widows and surviving dependent children, and the travel of judicial
personnel; supervising the probation offices; recommending official duty stations of
bankruptcy judges; establishing pretrial services and court interpreters; providing
accommodations for the courts; and, generally, supporting the Supreme Court and the
Judicial Conference.8 The director also serves as an ex-officio member of the Judicial
Conference’s executive committee and the Federal Judicial Center board.
Origins of the Administrative Office
The first formal plan for an administrative office for the Judicial Branch was drafted
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Homer Cummings, and submitted
to the Conference of Senior Judges in early 1937.9 At the conference’s next meeting, the
plan was passed over. Many “judges thought that the courts were functioning very well.”
However, during the conference’s September meeting, the plan was given a favorable
review.10
3 28 U.S.C. § 604.
4 “The Director may delegate any of the Director’s functions, powers, duties, and authority
(except the authority to promulgate rules and regulations) to such officers and employees of the
judicial branch of Government as the Director may designate....” See 28 U.S.C. § 602(d).
5 For an organizational chart of the AO, see The United States Government Manual, 2002-2003
(Washington: GPO, 2002), p. 79, and the Government Printing Office website,
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2003_government_manual&doc
id=193760tx_xxx-13.pdf], visited May 3, 2004.
6 28 U.S.C. § 602(d).
7 Cathy A. McCarthy and Tara Treacy, eds., The History of the Administrative Office of the
United States Courts: Sixty Years of Service to the Federal Judiciary (Washington:
Administrative Office, 2000), p. vii.
8 28 U.S.C. § 604.
9 Originally created in 1922, the conference, whose name was changed to the Judicial Conference
of the United States in 1948, is entrusted to make policy with regard to the federal courts.
10 See U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of the United States
Courts, hearings on S. 188, 76th Cong., 1st sess., Apr. 4 and 5, 1939 (Washington: GPO, 1939),
p. 9.

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In his annual report for that year, Attorney General Cummings also “recommend[ed]
legislation that would provide for the creation and maintenance of ... an administrative
system.”11 “An efficacious administrative machinery,” Cummings noted, “is as necessary
in the courts as it is in other branches of Government and in private enterprise.”
Cummings continued:
I believe, too, that there is something inherently illogical in the present system of
having the budget and expenditures of the courts and individual judges under the
jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. The courts should be an independent,
coordinate branch of the Government in every proper sense of the term.12
Unlike President Roosevelt’s controversial court-packing plan, the proposal for an
administrative office was not a means to control the judiciary.13 It was thought of as a
way to create an efficient court system and to make the judicial branch a truly independent
branch of government.
During the second session of the 75th Congress, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Henry F. Ashurst introduced S. 3212, a bill “to establish the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts,” on January 11, 1938.14 The bill would have vested
an AO director with authority to carry out all administrative and personnel functions of
the federal courts under the supervision of the Chief Justice and Conference of Senior
Judges. Although hearings were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill received
no further action.
At the end of the 75th Congress, Attorney General Cummings “took up the discussion
of the matter with the Judicial Conference.”15 The conference decided that, in Cummings’
words, “it was incumbent upon the courts themselves, the judges of the courts, to clean
their own house, rather than be subject to the embarrassment and destruction of our theory
of government by having it done by someone else.”16 As a result, the conference decided
to appoint a committee to work alongside the Attorney General to study and refine S.
3212.17 The committee was authorized to work with the Attorney General to design a bill
that Congress would adopt.
11 Attorney General Homer Cummings, Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United
States, Jan. 3, 1938 (Washington: GPO, 1937), p. 6.
12 Ibid., pp. 5-6.
13 The court-packing plan was an attempt by President Roosevelt to select judges who would
uphold his New Deal programs. The plan would have allowed the President to nominate a Justice
to the Supreme Court whenever an incumbent turned 70 and did not resign or retire. His proposal
applied to the Supreme Court and lower federal courts. For more information, see Marian C.
McKenna, Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Constitutional War: The Court-Packing Crisis of
1937 (New York: Fordham University Press, 2002).
14 See Congressional Record, vol. 83, Jan. 11, 1938, p. 304.
15 See U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of the United States
Courts, hearings on S. 188, p. 3.
16 Ibid., p. 9.
17 The Conference Committee members included appeals court judges Duncan Groner, Martin
Thomas Manton, John Parker, Evan Evans, and Kimbrough Stone.

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The revised bill, S. 188, was introduced in the 76th Congress by Chairman Ashurst.
A similar bill, H.R. 2973, was introduced in the House of Representatives; it was
subsequently amended and reintroduced as H.R. 5999. The bills had the endorsement of
the Chief Justice of the United States, the Attorney General, senior circuit judges, the
American Bar Association, the Association of Deans of Law Schools, and the American
Judicature Society.18 Two hearings were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on S.
188 and by the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 5999.19 At the Senate hearings,
Attorney General Cummings defended the bill as a way to separate the judicial branch
from the executive:
Of course, the judiciary is one of the great coordinate branches of our Government,
and as such, as I think all will agree, it should be independent. That it should have its
budget and its administrative functions, the expenditures of the judges, the salaries of
clerks, and the innumerable details connected with its administration, handled by the
Attorney General through the machinery of the Department of Justice, remembering
all the time that the Department of Justice represents most of the litigation in the
courts themselves, is an anomaly [.] I have never been able to reconcile myself to that
situation. I have felt that it meant the exercise of authority by the Attorney General
or the Department of Justice that should be placed elsewhere. It should, of course, be
placed with the branch of the Government that is directly concerned.20
S. 188 was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and passed by the Senate. The
House of Representatives earlier passed H.R. 5999. The two versions were reconciled in
conference, and each chamber approved the final bill. On August 7, 1939, the President
signed the bill into law.21
Current Issues
Security. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an area of principal
concern for the AO has been courthouse security and emergency preparedness.22 The AO
has traditionally coordinated security matters with the General Services Administration
(GSA) and the U.S. Marshals Service, but has also undertaken a number of emergency
planning initiatives. The Judiciary Emergency Preparedness Office was established by
18 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of the United States Courts,
hearings on S. 188, p. 13.
19 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of the United States Courts,
hearings on S. 188; and U.S. Congress, House Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of
the United States Courts, hearings on H.R. 5999, 76th Cong., 1st sess., Mar. 2 and Apr. 15, 1939
(Washington: GPO, 1939).
20 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administration of the United States Courts,
hearings on S. 188, p. 44.
21 See Congressional Record, vol. 84, Aug. 7, 1939, p. 11170, and P.L. 299, Act of Congress,
Aug. 7, 1939.
22 See statement by Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham; in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on
Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, State, Justice, and the Judiciary, Departments of
Commerce, Justice, and State, and Related Agencies Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2004,
hearings on H.R. 2799/S. 1585, 108th Cong., 1st sess., Mar. 6 and 20, April 1, 8, and 10, 2003
(Washington: GPO, 2003), p. 251.

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the AO “to give guidance and other assistance to courts for emergency preparedness,
crisis response, and continuity of operations plans.” The office has given briefings on
emergency preparedness to nearly 2,000 people in the judicial branch. In addition, the
office authorized a contractor “to develop a template for a continuity of operations plan
(COOP) for courts to use as they develop individual plans.”23 The focus was primarily
on courts in New York City. Final versions of the plan were reviewed and approved by
representatives from circuit executives’ offices and other courts. The plan was given to
the courts in November 2002 to help in emergency preparedness planning.24 Chief Justice
William Rehnquist has noted that “most federal courts have developed or are in the
process of developing continuity-of-operations plans.”25
Also of concern for the courts is the issue of mail handling. After the October 2001
incident involving anthrax contamination of U.S. government mail, a study was done to
research “several existing courthouse mail facilities and handling practices and to help
develop procedures and infrastructure for safe mail handling in federal courthouses.” The
study’s recommendations were approved by the Judicial Conference in 2002. Initially,
$12 million from an emergency security supplemental appropriation was used to construct
centralized mail rooms in courthouses.26
In 2004, Congress approved over $277 million to enhance mail security, as well as
overall courthouse security.27

Financial and Management Control. Before the early 1990s, district court
funds were controlled solely by the AO. Request for money was only given for specific
expenses and even then only by written requests. Since that time the AO has been
working to decentralize its “financial and management” control system.28 “Currently
about $2 billion each year are managed by the courts....”29 The program gives district
courts the flexibility to respond to unforeseen situations. For example, in May 2003, “a
tornado caused extensive structural damage to the courthouse in Jackson, Tennessee.”
The court clerk used local funds “to immediately lease space and relocate court files,
equipment and staff.”30
23 Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 2002 Annual Report, p. 15, Administrative Office
website, [http://www.uscourts.gov/library/dirrpt02/index.html], visited Apr. 21, 2004 (hereafter
2002 Annual Report). For further reading on emergency planning and continuity of operations,
see CRS Report RL31978, Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations (COOP)
Planning in the Federal Judiciary, by R. Eric Peterson.
24 U.S. Congress, hearings on H.R. 2799/S. 1585, Mar. 6, 2003, p. 252.
25 William Rehnquist, 2003 Year-End Report of the Federal Judiciary, Jan. 2004, at [http://
www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2003year-endreport.html], visited May 3, 2004.
26 2002 Annual Report, p. 4.
27 Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2004, P.L. 108-199, approved Jan. 23, 2004.
28 2002 Annual Report, p. 15.
29 “‘Mother May I’ No Longer in Courts’ Vocabulary,” The Third Branch, vol. 36, Feb. 2004, p.
10.
30 Ibid., p. 9.

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In November 2002, the AO contracted with KPMG LLP “to conduct a
comprehensive, independent assessment of the decentralization program.” KPMG was
charged with determining if the objects of decentralization had been achieved and making
recommendations for future improvements. In its findings, KPMG reported that the AO
has saved $1.3 billion from 1994 to 2002 in the salaries and expenses appropriation. The
report stated that decentralization was “an overwhelming success.”31
Information Technology. The AO has also been trying to improve the judicial
branch’s information technology capabilities. In recent years, Congress authorized a
Judiciary Information Technology Fund, which can be used “for the expansion,
management, and use of information technology throughout” the judicial branch. During
the 2004 fiscal year, Congress appropriated $321 million for the fund.32 The AO has
requested $72 million for the 2005 fiscal year.
Within the judicial branch, several new databases have been created by the AO to
help with the automation of the federal courts. A new Case Management/Electronic Case
Files (CM/ECF) system has been established.33 As of January 2004, the system was
active in two-thirds of the bankruptcy and district courts nationwide. An appellate court
system is being developed.34 The system holds more than 10 million cases, with nearly
50,000 attorneys filing documents electronically using this system.35 In addition, the
judiciary has created a Jury Management System that streamlines jury operations.36 Also,
a new information system called the Probation and Pretrial Services Case Management
System/Electronic Case Management (PACTS) “makes case information more accessible
to officers and their supervisors.”37 The system collects and organizes all “case-related”
information and allows officers to access the case files from their computers.38 PACTS
had been installed in more than 60 districts as of January 2004.39
31 Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 2003 Annual Report, Administrative Office website,
[http://www.uscourts.gov/library/dirrpt03/dirrpt03full.pdf], p. 17, visited May 3, 2004 (hereafter
2003 Annual Report).
32 U.S. Budget Appendix, 2004, p. 50.
33 For information about the application of CM/ECF, see “CM/ECF Troubleshooters: Support
Branch Staff Ready to Help Courts,” The Third Branch, vol. 35, Nov. 2003, pp. 4-5.
34 Rehnquist, “The Administrative Office of the United States Courts,” The Third Branch, vol.
36, Jan. 2004, pp. 5-6.
35 2003 Annual Report, p. 20.
36 2002 Annual Report, p. 24.
37 Ibid., p. 27.
38 2003 Annual Report, p. 2.
39 Rehnquist, “The Administrative Office of the United States Courts.”

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