An evaluation of the Judicial Conference's 1991-1993 pilot program allowing electronic media coverage of federal civil proceedings in six district and two appellate courts. The report, which was originally presented to the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, provides information concerning applications for coverage and proceedings actually covered, as well as a content analysis of news broadcasts incorporating such coverage. It summarizes results from surveys of judges and attorneys in the pilot courts; interviews with judges, court staff administrators, and media representatives; and state studies of the effects of electronic media presence on witnesses and jurors.

This report, and the study on which it is based, were undertaken pursuant to a House Committee Recommendation to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The recommendation directed the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) to contract with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), entering into an independent partnership to assist the FJC in its efforts to conduct workplace surveys of the judiciary, collect and analyze organizational process and employment engagement data, and coordinate best workplace practices across the judiciary. The recommendation also directed that the study explore options to institutionalize such capacity within the judiciary to ensure continued and consistent attention to matters of workplace misconduct in the future.

Beginning on July 1, 1972 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit designated a panel of judges to be responsible for hearing "oil and gas" cases in the Fifth Circuit. This research reviewed relevant cases decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the special oil and gas panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and concluded that the special panel, among other things, played a significant role in the development of the law governing producer prices and pipeline curtailment plans. This research was conducted by Professor David E. Pierce, Washburn University School of Law, pursuant to Federal Judicial Center Contract No. 91-092800-JXXXXXC-84454-2501.

Note: The title page reads “Draft Report,” but the Research Division confirms that this is the only and final version of the report.

This report evaluates the implementation of the interim recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Criminal Justice Act, appointed by the Chief Justice, in its 2017 report. The 35 interim recommendations called for changes in the administration of the Criminal Justice Act to improve the independence of the defense function while the Ad Hoc Committee’s final recommendation—an independent Defender Commission within the judicial branch of government, but outside the oversight of the Judicial Conference—was considered. Drawing from defender program information as well as newly collected data, the evaluation considers the implementation of the recommendations and the extent to which implementation addresses the concerns with the administration of federal public defense identified by the Ad Hoc Committee.