ted caseloads. These research and educational programs, however, received no permanent staff or funding. Support for an institutionalized program of judicial research and education increased after the establishment of 60 new district judgeships in 1961 demonstrated that the number of judges alone would not solve all of the problems of overworked courts. A growing number of judges and members of the bar urged the judiciary to establish the formal means to bring improved research and education to the courts.
At the suggestion of Chief Justice Warren, the Judicial Conference in 1966 authorized a committee to examine the research and education requirements of the judiciary. Former Justice Stanley Reed agreed to Warren’s request to chair the committee. Before the Judicial Conference adopted the Reed committee’s recommendation for establishment of a Federal Judicial Center, President Johnson, at Warren’s request, decided to include the proposal in his highly-publicized message on crime in February 1967. Bills to create the Center were soon submitted in both houses of Congress. With broad support for the concept of a research and education center for the judiciary, discussion in the House and Senate hearings centered on questions about the proper institutional form and leadership for the Center.
The Reed Committee and the director of the Administrative Office, among others, advocated an independent agency with its own governing board to which the Center director would report. The goal was to protect the research and education resources from being absorbed into strictly administrative duties and to insure the objectivity of research. The Federal Judicial Center’s board consists of the Chief Justice, a rotating group of judges selected by the Judicial Conference, and the director of the Administrative Office; no member of the Judicial Conference was to serve on the Center’s board. The statute authorizes the Center to conduct and support research on the operation of the courts, to offer education and training for judges and court personnel, and to assist and advise the Judicial Conference on matters related to the administration and management of the courts. More recent legislation has expanded the Center’s mandate to include, among other things, programs related to the history of the federal judiciary.
The Center includes several offices and divisions.
The Director's Office is responsible for the Center's overall management and its relations with other organizations. Its Office of Systems Innovation and Development (OSID) provides technical support for Center education and research. Communications Policy and Design (CPD) edits, produces, and distributes all Center print and electronic publications, operates the Federal Judicial Television Network, and through the Information Services Office maintains a specialized library collection of materials on judicial administration.
The Research Division undertakes empirical and exploratory research on federal judicial processes, court management, and sentencing and its consequences, often at the request of the Judicial Conference and its committees, the courts themselves, or other groups in the federal system. James B. Eaglin is the current director of the research division.
The Federal Judicial History Office develops programs relating to the history of the judicial branch and assists courts with their own judicial history programs.
The Education Division plans and organizes educational sessions for federal judges and court staff. Bruce Clarke is the current director of the Education Division.
The International Judicial Relations Office caries out the Center's statutory mission to provide information about federal courts to officials of foreign judicial systems and to acquire information about foreign judicial systems that will help the Center perform its other missions. Among other activities, the office administrates the Center's International Visitor briefing program and the Visiting Foreign Judicial Fellows Program.
The Center's board consists of:
A nonprofit organization, the Federa