Open Courts Act of 2026

This Act may be cited as the “Open Courts Act of 2026”.

(a) Consolidation.—

(1) Definitions.—

(A) Covered court.— In this subsection, the term covered court—

(i) means—

(I) any Federal court in the judicial branch of the United States Government; and

(II) any Federal Court whose records are accessible via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service on the date of enactment of this Act; and

(ii) does not include—

(I) the Supreme Court of the United States;

(II) the court established under section 502 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1532);

(III) the court established under section 103(a) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803(a)); or

(IV) the court established under section 103(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803(b)).

(B) Covered record.— The term covered record includes—

(i) all dockets of a covered court;

(ii) all documents filed in a covered court, either by paper or electronically, and reflected in a docket of a covered court;

(iii) all orders and opinions filed in a docket of a covered court;

(iv) all audio recordings filed in a docket of a covered court; and

(v) any other record identified by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts whose publication in the system created by this Act would serve to help the public better understand the functioning of the courts.

(2) Consolidation.— Not later than the date specified in subsection (f), the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, shall develop, deliver, operate, and sustain, consistent with the requirements of this Act, a centralized system with a separate public interface. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Director may consult with the Administrator of General Services.

(3) Rule of construction.— Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prohibit Federal courts that are not covered courts from adopting the code created for the system described under paragraph (2).

(b) Requirements of system.— The system described under subsection (a) shall comply with the following requirements:

(1) The system shall provide search, bulk access, and application programming interface functions for content and metadata. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Director may consult with the Administrator of General Services.

(2) The system shall make covered records automatically accessible, in accordance with the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), to the public upon filing, or in the case of previously sealed records, after unsealing.

(3) The home page for public access to the system shall include a notice displayed to first-time visitors, as determined through a mechanism that does not require registration or impose a fee, that users will not use the system for an unlawful purpose. Access to documents through other means, including under paragraph (6), may not be conditioned upon acknowledging such notice.

(4) Any information published pursuant to paragraph (4), (5), or (6) of section 205(a) or section 205(c)(1) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note) shall be included in the system or linked to prominently.

(5) Any information published pursuant to any provision of section 205 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note) not described in paragraph (4) shall be accessible via links from the system. Each website established pursuant to that section shall contain a link to the system.

(6) Any website for the system shall substantially comply with the requirements under subsections (b) and (c) of section 205 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note).

(7) The system shall enable external websites to be able to link to documents on the system via permanent, predictable URLs. The system shall not unduly restrict automated tools from accessing, indexing, and archiving such documents.

(8) The system may enable courts to automatically generate and submit, in a computer-readable format, the reports required by sections 2519(1) and 3103a(d)(1) of title 18, United States Code.

(9) The system shall at all times comply with the Judiciary Information Security Framework.

(10) For bankruptcy notices provided in accordance with the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the system may provide bankruptcy notices electronically.

(11) The system shall create a machine-readable neutral citation for all orders, opinions, and decisions made available through the system. The citations shall take the format of the year of the filing of the document, an abbreviated court name, and a serial number for the document.

(12) The system shall enable users to receive automatic notifications of new covered records in specific cases or cases that match particular search criteria, using industry-standard notification technologies identified by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

(13) Consistent with the best practices outlined in OMB Memorandum M–16–21 or a successor document, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts may enable other Federal, state and territorial, local and tribal government entities, and nonprofit organizations supporting those entities, to access and reuse the code for the system. It should be taken into consideration that contracts related to the development of custom code acquire and enforce rights sufficient to enable reuse of that custom-developed code.

(c) Development standards.— The system described under subsection (a) shall be developed with the following principles:

(1) User-centered design, including—

(A) research with end users of the system such as users within the judiciary, attorney and pro se filers, the media, academic researchers, and the public; and

(B) product development practices such as formal and continuous feedback loops and a publicly available backlog.

(2) Modern software development such as frequent deployments, short cycle times, and integrated development, security, and operations.

(3) Modern, flexible, and open-source software architecture focused on enabling future changes, data portability, software modularity and maintainability, and the use of application programming interfaces to enable public access to data.

(d) Data standards.—

(1) Establishment of data standards.— The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall establish data standards for the system established under subsection (a). In carrying out these responsibilities, the Director may consult with the Administrator of General Services and the Archivist of the United States.

(2) Requirements.— The data standards established under paragraph (1) shall, to the extent reasonable and practicable—

(A) incorporate widely accepted common data elements;

(B) incorporate a widely accepted, nonproprietary, full text searchable, platform-independent computer-readable format; and

(C) be capable of being continually upgraded as necessary.

(3) Deadlines.— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall issue guidance to all covered courts, as defined in subsection (a), on the data standards established under this subsection.

(e) Use of technology.— In carrying out the duties under subsection (a), the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall use modern technology—

(1) to improve security, data accessibility, data quality, affordability, and performance; and

(2) to minimize the burden on pro se litigants.

(f) Date specified.— The date specified in this subsection is the date that is 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act, unless the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts certifies to Congress, by not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, that an additional period of time is required. If the Director so certifies, the date specified in this subsection is the date that is 6 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

(a) Short term increased access fees for high-Volume users To fund the development of the modernized court records system.—

(1) In general.— Section 303 of the Judiciary Appropriations Act, 1992 (title III of Public Law 102–140; 105 Stat. 807) (28 U.S.C. 1913 note) is amended—

(A) in subsection (a)—

(i) in the first sentence, by striking “(a) The” and inserting “(a) (1) The”; and

(ii) by adding at the end the following:

“(2) Not later than 210 days after the date of enactment of the Open Courts Act of 2026, the Judicial Conference shall prescribe, after providing public notice and an opportunity for public comment, a schedule of additional fees for any person other than a government agency that accrues such fees for access in an amount of $25,000 or greater in any quarter or uses bulk-access functions. All fees collected under the preceding sentence shall be deposited as offsetting collections to the Judiciary Information Technology Fund pursuant to section 612(c)(1)(A) of title 28, United States Code.”; and

(B) in subsection (b), in the second sentence, by striking “All” and inserting “Except as otherwise provided in this section, all”.

(2) Effective date.— The amendments made by paragraph (1) shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) Long term funding for the operation and maintenance of the modernized court records system and other public access programs.—

(1) In general.— Section 303 of the Judiciary Appropriations Act, 1992 (title III of Public Law 102–140; 105 Stat. 807) (28 U.S.C. 1913 note), as amended by subsection (a)(1) of this section, is amended by striking subsections (a) and (b) and inserting the following:

“(a) In this section—

(1) the term annual covered costs means for each fiscal year, the total of—

(A) the cost of operating and maintaining the system described under section 2 of the Open Courts Act of 2026; and

(B) the covered public access program costs;

(2) the term covered public access program costs means the portion of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records access fees used by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts for other public access programs, in the full fiscal year preceding the date of enactment of the Open Courts Act of 2026, as adjusted for inflation; and

(b) To generate revenue to offset the annual covered costs, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall collect an annual fee from Federal agencies equal to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records access fees paid by those agencies in the full fiscal year preceding the date of enactment of the Open Courts Act of 2026, as adjusted for inflation.

(c) If the revenue generated in the first full fiscal year after the implementation of the fees under subsection (b) is not sufficient to offset the annual covered costs, the Judicial Conference shall, after providing public notice and an opportunity for public comment, prescribe schedules of reasonable filing fees, pursuant to sections 1913, 1914, 1926, 1930, and 1932 of title 28, United States Code, that—

(1) shall be based on factors to ensure that such schedules are graduated, including the cause of action and claim for relief, the status of the filer in the action and the financial hardship an additional fee would place on the filer, the amount of damages demanded, the estimated complexity of the type of action, and the interests of justice;

(2) may be prescribed for the filing of a counterclaim;

(3) shall not apply to a filer (other than a filer who is required by Federal law to pay filing fees, including under section 1915 of title 28, United States Code) who certifies that their adjusted gross income was less than $250,000, adjusted for inflation, based on their total income from the previous calendar year;

(4) shall not be a basis for denying access to the courts of the United States; and

(5) a court, upon motion, may waive in the interest of justice.

(d) All fees collected under this section shall be deposited as offsetting collections to the Judiciary Information Technology Fund pursuant to section 612(c)(1)(A) of title 28, United States Code, and may only be used to reimburse expenses incurred carrying out the Open Courts Act of 2026, for other public access programs (not to exceed the amount of covered public access program costs), and not for any other purpose.

(e) The Judicial Conference and the Director shall transmit each schedule of fees prescribed under this section to Congress at least 90 days before the schedule becomes effective. The Judicial Conference shall review a schedule of fees prescribed under this section 3 years after the schedule becomes effective and every 3 years thereafter to ensure that the fees meet the requirements of this subsection. If the fees do not meet the requirements of this subsection, the Judicial Conference shall prescribe a new schedule of fees pursuant to this subsection and submit the new schedule of fees to Congress.

(f) If at the end of a fiscal year, the Judiciary Information Technology Fund contains more than $50,000,000 in funds that have not already been obligated to be spent in the next fiscal year, generated through the fees prescribed under this subsection—

(1) all excess funds over $50,000,000 shall be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury;

(2) notice of this fact and the amount transferred to the Treasury shall be published on the public website of the Administrative Office of United States Courts; and

(3) the Judicial Conference shall within 210 days review the fee schedule to reduce the excess revenue generated.

(g)

(1) No fees may be charged to access any functionality of the system created under section 2 of the Open Courts Act of 2026.

(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) may be construed to prohibit the collection of fees from agencies under subsection (a).”.

(2) Effective date.— The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall take effect on the date specified in section 2(f).

The system described under this Act shall comply with—

(1) relevant digital accessibility standards established pursuant to section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d); and

(2) section 3559 of title 44, United States Code, if the system were operated by an agency in the executive branch.

(a) In general.— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter, the Comptroller General of the United States shall notify Congress whether the Director of the Administrative Office of United States Courts has—

(1) produced additional usable functionality of the system described under section 2 of this Act; and

(2) allowed the Comptroller General or a designee to attend all sprint reviews held during the applicable period.

(b) Audit.— Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 2 years thereafter, the Comptroller General of the United States shall—

(1) conduct an audit of the system established under this Act, including the compliance of vendors with the quality assessment surveillance plan, code quality, and whether the system is meeting the needs of users; and

(2) provide a briefing to Congress that contains—

(A) the results of the audit; and

(B) any recommendations to improve the system established under this Act.

(c) Sunset.— This section is effective beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on the date that is 10 years after the date specified in section 2(f).

(a) In general.— The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall ensure the cybersecurity of the system described under section 2 of this Act in consultation with the relevant cybersecurity expert agencies in the executive branch and consistent with the relevant cybersecurity laws (including regulations), policies, and standards that would apply if the system would be operated by an agency in the executive branch, including section 225(b)(1)(D) of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. 1523(b)(1)(D)).

(b) Waiver.— The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts may waive an executive branch cybersecurity requirement if—

(1) the requirement would be infeasible to implement or result in the executive branch gaining access to confidential or nonpublic judicial branch information; and

(2) the Director—

(A) takes alternative actions to mitigate the cybersecurity risks that the requirement would address; and

(B) not less frequently than annually—

(i) notifies the congressional committees described in section 205(g)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note) of the nature of any exceptions and alternative actions implemented; and

(ii) certifies that the intent of the requirement has been achieved through alternate means.

(c) Rule of construction.— Nothing in this section shall require the judicial branch to provide the executive branch with privileged access to any judicial branch information system.

Section 205(b) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note) is amended by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:

“(2) Closed cases.—

(A) In general.— Electronic files and docket information for closed cases shall be made available online until the later of—

(i) 15 years after the date on which the case is closed; and

(ii) the date on which the electronic files and docket information are transferred to the National Archives.

(B) Written opinions.— All written opinions issued after the date of enactment of this section shall remain available online unless otherwise redacted by court order.”.

Upon the request of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Administrator of General Services may provide to the Administrative Office, on a reimbursable basis, administrative and technical support services, or information technology products and platforms.

Section 342 of title 11, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subsection (e)—

(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting “electronic” before “address”; and

(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting “electronic” after “provided to such”; and

(2) in subsection (f)—

(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting “electronic” after “of”; and

(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting “electronic” after “provided to such”.

Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to—

(1) affect the filing fees or other filing procedures for prisoners;

(2) abrogate, limit, or modify the requirements described in section 1915 of title 28, United States Code;

(3) limit or impair the right of public access to judicial records or any right of public access to information otherwise provided by law; or

(4) mandate the disclosure of information that is lawfully sealed or otherwise restricted from public access by Federal law.