Security in Focus as Supreme Court Reviews 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court released its annual year in review for the federal judiciary.
The report included a discussion of case numbers, as well as a discussion on protecting members of the federal judiciary and their families. The report explains that federal judges are seeing a rising number of threats.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts devoted his opening letter to the issue of security writing, “I want to thank the Members of Congress who are attending to judicial security needs— these programs and the funding of them are essential to run a system of courts.”
The report comes as Congress appropriated more money for federal courts in the FY 2023 appropriations bill. The bill includes $8.46 billion to fund the federal court system, a 5.9 percent increase from the 2022 fiscal year, but $58 million less than the judiciary requested.
That funding includes $750 million for court security. Reuters reports that the security funding will go to “essential security needs” like more officers, courthouse construction projects and new equipment. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, federal judges were subject to 4,511 threats and inappropriate communications in 2021, up from 926 such incidents in 2015.
Also on the issue of protecting judges, Congress passed the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act (S.2340) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The legislation is named after Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas of New Jersey. Anderl was shot and killed by a former litigant posing as a deliveryman at the judge’s home in July 2020. The bill passed with bipartisan support.
“This legislation will make it harder for violent individuals to find judges’ addresses and other personal information online. By better protecting judges, the bill also helps safeguard the judicial independence guaranteed by the Constitution,” said Judge Salas.
The appropriations bill also earmarked $106 million to modernize information technology infrastructure and to better guard the court system against cyber attacks.
Meanwhile, the report also detailed declining cases across the federal judiciary in 2022. At the Supreme Court, the number of cases fell by eight percent in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2022, compared to the prior year. The U.S. courts of appeals, U.S. district courts and U.S. bankruptcy courts saw similar new case declines.
There were 4,900 Supreme Court filings in the term. 70 cases were argued before the high court, compared to 72 the year before. 63 of those were disposed of in 58 signed opinions.
Filings fell six percent in regional courts of appeal from the prior year. They were down 14 percent from FY 2019, the last full fiscal year before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Federal district courts saw a 20 percent decline in cases, while bankruptcy courts saw a 12 percent drop.