Schiff Introduces Bill to Extend FOIA Transparency to Judicial Branch, Restore Faith in the Judicial System
Washington, D.C.— Today, Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the Judicial FOIA Expansion Act, which would extend the transparency afforded by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the administrative apparatus of the judicial branch. This critical bill will create a right of public access to records pertaining to the federal judiciary while maintaining important privacy and national security protections.
“Increasing transparency within the judiciary is a crucial step towards restoring the people's trust in our justice system,” said Rep. Schiff. “My Judicial FOIA Expansion Act will provide the American people greater insight into the inner workings of courts by providing public and journalistic access to the Judiciary’s administrative records. This reform and others are increasingly necessary to begin to restore faith in our judicial branch.”
“The judiciary is an essential and complex part of our government with a multi-billion dollar budget. This bipartisan bill extends commonsense transparency rules to the judiciary so that journalists and members of the public can hold it accountable and understand how it works,” said Michael Lissner, Executive Director, Free Law Project.
“Americans deserve accountability and transparency from the Supreme Court and all courts in our system of justice. However, the current Supreme Court and certain other courts have fallen far short of those standards” said Aaron Scherb, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs, Common Cause. “We thank Congressman Schiff for introducing the Judicial FOIA Expansion Act to provide more sunlight and to ensure that Americans can fully understand how judges and courts operate. We encourage Congress to pass this bill, as well as other legislation that will bring much-needed reforms to the judiciary.”
“Expanding FOIA’s ability to increase transparency, as this bill would do, is essential to whistleblower claims — often, FOIA requests are the main source of information that validate whistleblower claims and hold government agencies accountable,” said Tom Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project.
Specifically, The Judicial FOIA Expansion Act would:
- Extend the Freedom of Information Act to the judicial branch, allowing for record requests of the branch’s administrative apparatus;
- Provide important exceptions to the extension of FOIA access to any matter related to an ongoing case and any information not in the possession of the Judiciary;
- Extend the Privacy Act to the judicial branch to maintain privacy protections with regard to any record requests; and
- Maintain other existing exceptions under current FOIA law including for records maintained on specific individuals, classified information, or trade secrets.
The Judicial FOIA Expansion Act is supported by Alliance for Justice, Common Cause, Court Accountability, End Citizens United/Let America Vote (ECU/LAV), Fix the Court, Free Law Project, Free Speech for People, Government Accountability Project, Government Information Watch, League of Conservation Voters (LCV), People for the American Way (PFAW), Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and Stand Up America.
Schiff has been a continuous leader on Supreme Court reform. Recently, Schiff announced the creation of the Court Reform Now Task Force which will be utilized as a platform to increase awareness and elevate the debate around key pieces of court reform legislation to fix and rebalance the court. Schiff also recently introduced the Judicial Integrity Act, a critical bill that would hold federal judges and justices accountable for violations of their ethical duties and restore integrity to the courts.
Last year, Schiff introduced the Justice is Beneficial Limitation on Investments and Necessary Disclosure (BLIND) Act, a bill that would require judges to place their financial assets and investments into blind trusts. Schiff also introduced the Judiciary Act of 2023 which would expand the Supreme Court to 13 members. Later in September, Rep. Schiff joined as an original cosponsor of the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act, which would set term limits for Supreme Court justices while establishing a process for Supreme Court appointments.
Read the full bill here.
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