A magistrate judge and a bankruptcy judge were first invited to attend the Judicial Conference in a non-voting, observer capacity a few years ago by the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Chief Justice Roberts has continued the practice. The current magistrate judge representative is Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings (D. Mass.). The Federal Judicial Center Board includes a magistrate judge member and the majority of Judicial Conference committees have at least one magistrate judge member. Most circuit judicial councils now invite a magistrate judge to participate in their meetings as a non-voting representative. In their own districts, many magistrate judges have been invited to attend judges’ meetings; they are appointed to court committees; and otherwise share in governance and policy-making activities. The Magistrate Judges Committee strongly favors magistrate judge involvement and participation in court governance activities.

Like everyone else, magistrate judges want to be kept apprised of what is going on in the Judiciary. There’s a lot of administrative work in running the federal court system, and I think magistrate judges have a lot to offer at all levels. I know there are discussions about courtroom sharing and other things that will affect magistrate judges, and it’s very important for district judges to hear what magistrate judges have to say about these issues because we don’t always have the same perspective on the district level. Like anything else, the more people and different perspectives involved, the better the decision. They are an indispensable part of the Judiciary, and they have a lot to add.

Within statutory and constitutional parameters, I believe that magistrate judges will continue to be authorized to exercise a broad range of authority. Innovation in the utilization of magistrate judges will probably, and hopefully, continue. It will be driven by increasing caseloads and the need to maximize the effectiveness of magistrate judge utilization overall.

I’m hopeful that we can make strides towards greater diversity in the magistrate judge system, which the Magistrate Judges Committee strongly encourages. I also believe the stature and responsibilities of the office of magistrate judges will continue to attract very high-caliber applicants. And I expect that magistrate judges will continue to play an important role as an effective and flexible judicial resource in addressing critical workloads and challenges, as for example, the way magistrate judges have been heavily utilized to meet the massive influx of criminal cases in the southwest border courts that we just discussed.