# Judicial Conference of the United States The national policymaking body of the federal courts, codified at **28 U.S.C. § 331**. Congress created it in 1922 as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges; it took its current name in 1948. The Chief Justice presides. The other members are the chief judge of each of the thirteen circuits, a district judge elected from each of the twelve regional circuits, and the chief judge of the [[Court of International Trade]]. It meets twice a year, in March and September, and does most of its work through about two dozen standing committees. Its administrative arm is the [[Administrative Office of the United States Courts]]; its research and education arm is the [[Federal Judicial Center]]. It is the closest thing the judicial branch has to a legislature, and nobody in it is elected. ## What it does **It writes the rules the courts run on.** Amendments to the civil, criminal, appellate, bankruptcy and evidence rules pass through its advisory committees and the [[Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure]] before reaching the Conference, which sends them to the Supreme Court for promulgation under the [[Rules Enabling Act]]. The check that mattered in 2026 was informal: in August its Executive Committee raised concerns about a proposed amendment to Evidence Rule 609, and the Standing Committee withdrew it before the September session. See [[How a Federal Rule of Procedure Is Made]]. **It asks Congress for judges.** Every two years it surveys caseloads and recommends new judgeships. In March 2025 it asked for **71**, including two on the Ninth Circuit. The [[JUDGES Act]] was built on the same data. The 2024 version was vetoed, and its successor has not had a floor vote. The number of authorized seats is therefore the one input to [[How a Nominee Becomes a Federal Judge]] that has been frozen since 2024. **It polices judicial conduct.** Under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act it hears complaints referred up from the circuit councils. It may also certify to the House that a judge's conduct may warrant impeachment, as it did before the House impeached and the Senate removed Judge Thomas Porteous in 2010. It publishes the Code of Conduct for lower-court judges and runs the financial-disclosure system. ## The limits of its reach Its authority over the Supreme Court is the open question. Democrats [[Sheldon Whitehouse]] and Hank Johnson asked it to refer Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] to the Justice Department over undisclosed gifts and travel from [[Harlan Crow]]. The conservative [[Center for Renewing America]] filed a parallel request about Justice [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]]'s disclosures. The Conference sat on the Thomas matter from 2023 through 2024, then declined both in letters released in early January 2025. Judge [[Robert J. Conrad Jr.]], its secretary, wrote that there is "reason to doubt" the Conference has any authority to refer a Justice. He also noted that Thomas had since amended his disclosures. The Justices' own 2023 code has no enforcement mechanism. ## 2025–26: security and money The Conference's March 2025 session took up a question that would have sounded paranoid a year earlier. Judge Richard Sullivan, chair of its security committee, asked what would happen if the White House withdrew the protection judges receive. The concern is structural: judicial security is provided by the [[United States Marshals Service]], which sits in the Justice Department and answers to the Attorney General. In September 2025, [[CREW]] urged the Conference to consider moving security and court-order enforcement under judicial control. At the same September session the judiciary warned that its budget crisis would deepen under another continuing resolution. In September 2026 it reported progress on getting control over its mission-essential buildings. For how the judges' side of that fight plays out, see [[Judicial Independence]] and [[James Boasberg]]. ## See also - [[Judiciary Hub]] · [[Federal Judiciary Tree]] · [[How a Nominee Becomes a Federal Judge]] - [[How a Federal Rule of Procedure Is Made]] · [[Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure]] · [[Rules Enabling Act]] · [[Federal Rules of Evidence]] - [[Administrative Office of the United States Courts]] · [[Federal Judicial Center]] · [[Senior Status]] - [[Supreme Court of the United States]] · [[John Roberts]] · [[JUDGES Act]] · [[Court of International Trade]]