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Admin. Office of the US Courts Press Release
on Internet Monitoring of Judges & Judiciary Employees (Aug. 13, 2001)
News Release
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
August 13, 2001
Contact: David Sellers
Washington, D.C. 20544
Phone (202)502-2600
Fax (202) 502-2633
http://www.uscourts.gov
Federal Judges Issue Internet Use Policy for U.S. Courts
A committee of United States judges today issued a report addressing
various aspects of Internet use by federal judges and Judiciary
employees nationwide.
The report was endorsed unanimously by the 14-judge Committee on
Automation and Technology of the Judicial Conference of the United
States, and its release was directed by the seven-member Executive
Committee of the Conference. The full 27-member Conference Ð the
national policy-making body for the federal courts Ð is expected to
consider the report when it next meets on September 11. The Automation
Committee recommends that the Judicial Conference:
- In 2002, a review of system architecture will be completed under the
committeeÕs direction, with a view of possible decentralization of
Internet access to individual courts in a manner consistent with the
security of the entire judiciary network. Pending the completion of this
review, we ask the Judicial Conference to reaffirm (a) that computers
connected to the DCN shall access the Internet only through national
Internet gateways; and (b) that operations and security at those
gateways are under the administrative, managerial, and logistical
control of the Administrative Office, subject to the direction of the
Conference or, where appropriate, Conference committees.
- Immediately adopt, on an interim basis, the model use policy at
Appendix D developed by the federal Chief Information Officers Council,
as later revised by the subcommittee or the committee to tailor it to
the judiciary, as a national minimum standard defining appropriate
Internet use, subject to the right of each court unit to impose or
maintain more restrictive policies. In carrying out routine
administrative, operational, and maintenance responsibilities, should
instances of possibly inappropriate use of government resources come to
the attention of the management of a court unit or the Administrative
Office, established Judicial Conference notification policy will be
followed.
- Reaffirm that individual courts have responsibility to enforce
appropriate use policies and direct that the Administrative Office, as
part of its regular audit process, examine and comment upon the adequacy
of the courtsÕ enforcement methods.
- Require the Administrative Office to disseminate to all judicial
branch employees now and hereafter hired, and to request each court
prominently to display on screen prior to access of the DCN and the
Internet, a banner notice clearly and conspicuously disclosing, in such
form as the subcommittee or the committee may approve, that the use of
the system is subject to the interim policy or, where applicable, more
restrictive local policy, that the contents of the use may be viewed and
recorded, that the employeeÕs use of the system constitutes consent to
such viewing and recording, and that uses inconsistent with the
applicable use policy may result in disciplinary action.
- Having discerned no material business use for Gnutella, Napster,
Glacier, and Quake, all of which raise immediate and continuing security
vulnerabilities, (1) direct the Administrative Office to take
appropriate steps to block such traffic involving computers connected to
the DCN, and (2) delegate to the committee the authority to block other
tunneling protocol that may cause security breaches.
A copy of the Automation Committee report can be located at
http://www.uscourts.gov/judnow/jccsumreport.pdf.
The Judicial Conference of the United States is the principal
policy-making body for the federal court system. The Chief Justice
serves as the presiding officer of the Conference, which is composed of
the chief judges of the 13 courts of appeals, a district judge from each
of the 12 geographic circuits, and the chief judge of the Court of
International Trade. The Conference meets twice a year to consider
administrative and policy issues affecting the court system and to make
recommendations to Congress concerning legislation involving the
Judicial Branch.
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