News and Announcements

Judge Stephanie Kulp Seymour, who joined a historic class of women judges when she was appointed in 1979 to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, was encouraged early on by her parents to be an independent thinker.

District Judge Barbara Brandriff Crabb, of the Western District of Wisconsin, had a potential head start on a legal career. Her uncle, father, and grandfather all had law degrees, and as a child, “my parents taught me I could be anything I wanted to be.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has named five new chairs of Judicial Conference committees and extended the terms of seven current chairs by one year. The appointments are effective on Oct. 1, 2019.

Two federal judges today provided testimony to members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.

Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson was a legal pioneer long before 1979, when she joined a historic class of women judges who reshaped the federal Judiciary, and she already had an uncanny knack for finding justice in non-confrontive ways.

On this day in history, President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 establishing a federal court system separate from state courts. The 230-year-old act set forth a three-tier federal court structure of one Supreme Court and two levels of inferior courts.

Long before she joined a historic class of women judges in 1979, District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo’s professional future began with a childhood vision. As her school bus drove past Dickinson School of Law in her home town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she knew she wanted to be a lawyer.

The federal Judiciary’s national policy making body today approved a new model employment dispute resolution (EDR) plan that will simplify and expand the options for addressing wrongful workplace conduct and, in other action, took steps to make electronic access to court records free for more users.  

"Congratulations, you are all United States citizens.” With these simple words, a federal judge welcomed new citizens as part of a series of naturalization ceremonies held in recent weeks at professional baseball stadiums across the country. A new U.S. Courts video captures the momentous occasions with interviews of new citizens about what it means to be an American.

Like many  of the 23 women judges who transformed the federal Judiciary in 1979, Susan Harrell Black was encouraged by her father to have professional aspirations—but for a darkly practical reason.