Proposal on judiciary records

This is Gabe Roth with Fix the Court, a nonpartisan group that advocates for greater openness and accountability from the federal courts.

As you may know, the federal courts regularly shield all types of basic information from the press and public, even though the other two branches actively and regularly release these kinds of data. I'm referring to the membership of various judicial policymaking committees, reports on their meetings and the third branch's contracts with third parties, among others. Even a sortable, searchable list of federal judges does not exist in any form on a U.S. Courts website, but in the interest of transparency, it should.

I am submitting a proposal for a new Judiciary Open Records Act to the FOIA Advisory Committee. The measure would require the third branch — the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts or the Judicial Conference in most instances — to proactively release critical information regularly, making the branch more transparent and aligning it with best practices in the other branches.

Section by section:
— Section 1 is the title
— Section 2(a) lists 13 categories of information that I believe the judiciary should be required to proactively release
— Section 2(b) requires the judiciary to regularly update the 2(a) information
— Section 2(c) is the anti-backsliding section, requiring the judiciary to maintain all the information it's already posted online in perpetuity
— Section 2(d) addresses noncompliance, allowing those who request the 2(a) information but don't receive it to obtain the same relief in federal court as a FOIA requester
— Section 2(e) defines a "judicial agency," a "judge" and a "court" for the purposes of this legislation

The full proposal is here: https://fixthecourt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Judicial-Open-Records-Act-2.24.26.pdf