Judiciary News

The new 113th Congress includes several changes to the jurisdiction and leadership in committees and subcommittees that handle Judiciary-related matters. Included are the following:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. has appointed Chief Judge William B. Traxler, Jr (4th Cir.) Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Many federal courts along the northeast corridor may be affected by Winter Storm Nemo.

More than 200 years after his birth, on Feb. 12, 1809, and with a movie about him in the Oscar spotlight, Abraham Lincoln remains a source of fascination to Americans, including those in the world of law.

Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts fell 13 percent in calendar year 2012, according to data released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The number of bankruptcies filed in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2012, totaled 1,221,091, down from the 1,410,653 bankruptcies filed in CY 2011.

A pilot project giving the public free, text-searchable, online-access to court opinions now is available to all federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts.

As has happened from the earliest years of the nation, members of the U.S. Supreme Court took part in this year’s Jan. 21 inauguration ceremony, and their participation is documented in the accompanying photo slide show.

Earlier this month, Chief Judge Catherine D. Perry, of the Eastern District of Missouri, swore in U.S. Representative Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), in a ceremony at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in St. Louis.

Federal court statistical profiles for the nation’s 12 regional appeals courts and 94 district courts for fiscal year 2012, the 12-month period ending September 30, 2012, are newly available.

With the swearing-in this week of President Obama, U.S. Presidents have taken the oath of office 65 times in our nation’s history, and a federal jurist has administered that oath on 62 of those occasions.

A few days after the federal Judiciary’s Digital Video Pilot Project began in July 2011, the Western District of Tennessee recorded the first courtroom proceeding, a preliminary injunction hearing in a defamation case.

The Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure is asking for comment on the first proposed modernization of bankruptcy forms in two decades.

Focusing on efforts by the federal courts to contain costs, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has issued his "2012 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary."

In late October and early November, courts in New York, New Jersey and other Eastern Seaboard states were shut down by Super Storm Sandy. This account, by Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska, describes the challenges faced by the Southern District of New York in putting its courts back in order.

Pronouncing himself “humbled,” Judge Thomas F. Hogan, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, has received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award, but he cautioned in remarks that America's federal judges are “nearing a crossroads.”