Some Preliminary Thoughts on Long-Range Planning for the Federal Judiciary

Considers the "mission" of the federal courts. There is no single, objectively correct conception of the role of the federal courts and that attempting to develop a once-and-for all conception would be a waste of time and could, in-fact, prevent the Long-Range Planning Committee of the Judicial Conference from achieving its potential. Next is a discussion of the conception of long-range planning, in terms of a relatively short event horizon (somewhat arbitrarily set at five years) and the absolutely wide-open scope of the range of proposals that are relevant to the work of this Committee (basically anything and everything). Then there is a description of preliminary thoughts on the role of the Committee to be a kind of permanent Federal Courts Study Committee modelled after comparable Congressional committees. Lastly, this statement will touch briefly on some of the organizational and operational relationships and attitudes that the author deems important as you begin the enterprise of judicial branch planning.