The Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules asked the Federal Judicial Center to examine summary judgment practice across federal district courts as a means of assessing the potential impact of proposed amendments to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

A brief report on case-processing times, case outcomes, and motions practice in employment discrimination cases included in a pattern discovery pilot, compared with a nationwide random sample of similar cases. The report finds that case-processing times did not differ between the pilot and comparison cases, but that motions practice was greater in the comparison cases.

For a subsequent study, see Report on Pilot Project Regarding Initial Discovery Protocols for Employment Cases Alleging Adverse Action (October 2018). For earlier work by the Employment Protocols Committee, see Pilot Project Regarding Initial Discovery Protocols for Employment Cases Alleging Adverse Action (November 2011).

In 2016, at the request of the Judicial Conference Committee on Federal–State Jurisdiction, a survey was sent to all chief federal district judges asking about cooperation with their state judge counterparts. The chief district judges were asked about topics and activities that could benefit from federal–state court cooperation, whether they collaborated with their state judge counterparts on the topics, and whether they were interested in additional cooperation. 

[This report was written and presented to the Committee in 2016, and approved for release in 2017.]

In 1990, Congress created the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal, who's charge included investigation of problems related to the discipline and removal of life-tenured federal judges, and evaluation of alternatives to current arrangements for judicial discipline and removal, including statutory and constitutional amendments. The Commission was instructed to submit its findings and recommendations to the President, Congress, and the Chief Justice of the United States. The Commission held six public hearings during 1992 and 1993, and submitted its final report on August 2, 1993. This report was prepared with the assistance of the Federal Judicial Center.

The Federal Judicial Center serves as repository for the Commission's published materials. Although hard copies of the Commission's final report are no longer available for distribution, the report is reprinted at 152 Federal Rules Decisions 265 (1994). The Commission's Research Papers and Hearings remain available for distribution in hard copy.