C.J. Robert's Report on the Federal Judiciary
In his "2007 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary" issued on January 1, 2008, Chief Justice Roberts called for continuing "three of my predecessor's important but unfinished initiatives to maintain the quality of our courts."
The Chief Justice called for additional efforts to improve communications with the Executive and Legislative branches. He expressed the view that the Judiciary must "relentlessly" ensure that federal judges maintain the "highest standards" of integrity. And Chief Justice Roberts argued that federal judges should receive pay raises to "reverse the steady erosion of judicial salaries since 1969."
In an appendix to the report, the Chief Justice noted that the total number of cases filed in the Supreme Court increased by 4% to 8,857 over the previous year. The number of appeals heard by the regional courts of appeals decreased by 12% to 58,410, largely the result of a reduction in appeals from administrative immigration decisions and decreases in criminal appeals brought about by the decision in U.S. v. Booker.
Filings in the U.S. district courts fell less than 1% to 257,507. The national median time from filing to disposition for civil cases was 9.6 months, and the median case disposition time for criminal cases was 7.0 months.
Filing before the U.S. bankruptcy courts fell 28% to 801,269. The number of persons under post-conviction supervision increased 2% to 116,221.