This webpage answers frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) civics education and outreach visualization ("civics visualization" or "visualization"). Using the index below, you can navigate to the questions and answers of interest. 

1. Why was this civics visualization created?
2. What was the scope of the FJC’s website review?
3. What types of civics content are highlighted in the visualization?
4. Does the visualization include all civics content the FJC located on court websites?
5. Does the FJC plan to update the visualization?
6. I am a federal court employee, and we are redesigning our court’s entire website or redesigning or adding to its civics content. What should we do to ensure our court’s content continues to be linked, remains properly categorized, or is newly incorporated in the visualization?
7. Who should I contact if I have additional questions or see an error or bug in the visualization or its associated webpages?

1. Why was this civics visualization created?

The Committee on the Judicial Branch of the Judicial Conference of the United States asked the FJC to assist in the development of civics resources for judges and judiciary staff. FJC researchers reviewed federal court websites to identify available civics resources and programs and to gather baseline information about the civics activities in which courts are engaged.

We discovered that many courts have developed and created civics content. However, finding this content is not always quick or easy, given the large number of court websites and the many sections within each of them.

The civics visualization is intended to make it easier for judges, judiciary employees, and civics target audiences (e.g., teachers, students, the media, and the general public) to access and review civics web content created by individual courts. The content highlighted in the visualization also may assist courts in developing or expanding their own civics programming and resources.

2. What was the scope of the FJC’s website review?

Although most information on a court’s website might be educational in some way, most of it is not primarily intended for a civics or outreach related purpose. The bulk of court web content instead facilitates administrative or operational functions (e.g., filing of case documents) and is often intended for individuals with specific business or cases before the court.

For the purposes of our review, civics education was defined as intentional efforts to educate members of the public about the role, structure, function, or operation of the federal courts. The public includes teachers and journalists, but excludes petit or grand jurors, pro se litigants, law students, attorneys, or other people who interact with a court in its administrative or operational role. This definition cabined the scope of the website review and ensured that the end product reflected only civics-related content.

“Intentional” efforts to educate members of the public might be demonstrated by placing content under website tabs or menus (e.g., For Teachers, Civics Education) or by labeling or annotating the content to make its relevance to the public clear. In general, if the placement or labeling of web content would make its relevance to civics education reasonably apparent to a member of the public, we categorized it as civics content. If content instead appeared to be primarily administrative or operational in nature, without clear evidence of intentional targeting to civics audiences, we did not categorize it as civics content.

3. What types of civics content are highlighted in the visualization?

In two separate views, or “dashboards”, the visualization incorporates:

• available dedicated programs webpage(s): a permanent/standing program information page, not information posted on a temporary website feature, a general announcement page, or an announcement page for a specific one-time event, especially when hosted in a court’s News/Announcements section. Dedicated program pages often contain general information about how a court conducts its civics programs, program frequency, program materials, and contact information.
• highlighted educational resources: these include written materials, videos, and other media or materials hosted on court webpages with the primary and intentional aim of educating the public about civics and the courts.

On the main/default view of both the resources and the programs dashboards (i.e., before any Choose a Resource Topic or Choose a Program Info Page Type dropdown selection is made), hovering over a circuit or district displays links to

• any main civics page for the court.
• the court’s homepage.
• any civics website/webpage for the circuit.
• any dedicated information page for media/journalists for the court.

A few courts have physical learning centers within their courthouses, sometimes operated in collaboration with another organization. Learning centers are depicted on the dashboards with an icon. Hovering over the icon reveals a link to navigate to the learning center’s website.

The Instructions and Other Helpful Information webpage provides definitions of the types of content grouped within each dropdown category (see the Key Definitions section), as well as screenshots of the different elements in the visualization and how they are displayed.

4. Does the visualization include all civics content the FJC located on court websites?

No, not all available civics content is included in the visualization. For reasons explained below, the absence of content in the visualization does not necessarily mean that a court has no civics programs or web content and should not be so interpreted.

Two goals of the visualization are to highlight:

1. educational resources and program information pages that judges and court staff may find useful as models or examples, and
2. content that is most likely useful to members of the public.

Given these purposes, we focused on dedicated program information pages and unique or more comprehensive resources. Resources that discuss a topic only briefly or programs for which there are not dedicated information webpages may not be included.

To avoid directing users repeatedly to the same resources, the visualization almost always omits judiciary civics resources that individual courts did not create but to which they link (e.g., FJC or Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO)/uscourts.gov resources). Similarly, we omitted external civics resources that a court may link to on its website but did not itself create (e.g., links to the National Archives, the National Constitution Center). Despite these general omissions, content from the websites for court-affiliated learning centers is included in the visualization. Also, at a court’s request, oral histories of judges created by the AO (e.g., Pathways to the Bench profiles) and content from a court historical society website may be included.

We limited the information included on the program dashboard to standing general information pages about recurrent civics programs offered by a court. We did not include event announcements about specific past or future civics programs, especially announcements hosted solely within News/Announcements sections of court websites. Past events are likely of little interest to the public since they can no longer attend. Similarly, information about future events would eventually become outdated.

The visualization also does not include:

• civics content added to a court’s website after our review ended on May 17, 2023, unless the court informed us of its new web content (see Questions 5 and 6 below).
• information or programs targeted at members of the public interacting with the court primarily in its operational or administrative role (e.g., pro se litigants, jurors, attorneys, and law students—see Question 2 above).
• information from separate probation, pretrial services, or federal defender’s office websites. FJC researchers reviewed only the websites for appellate, bankruptcy, district, and territorial courts, and the Court of Federal Claims and the Court of International Trade.

5. Does the FJC plan to update the visualization?

Once the visualization has been published, the FJC does not plan to review court websites on an ongoing or frequent basis to identify and incorporate new resources or program pages. The FJC may, if resources allow, conduct periodic top-to-bottom reviews of court websites to update information.

In the interim, courts are encouraged to report new civics content they have created to civics@fjc.gov, and FJC staff will incorporate newly reported content (that meets the inclusion criteria described in Questions 2, 3, and 4 above) into the visualization periodically.

6. I am a federal court employee, and we are redesigning our court’s entire website or redesigning or adding to its civics content. What should we do to ensure our court’s content continues to be linked, remains properly categorized, or is newly incorporated in the visualization?

If any of the URLs/links for web content currently highlighted in the visualization change, be sure your court IT team implements a “redirect.” A URL redirect sends users who try to access content via an outdated URL/link to the new URL. Using a redirect will ensure the old link continues to work in the short-term. Please also notify the FJC (civics@fjc.gov) of the new URL/link for your court’s highlighted content so we can update the visualization with the new links/URLs for a longer-term solution.

If your court makes substantive changes that alter the appropriate dropdown categories for content that is already in the visualization, please let us know (civics@fjc.gov) which content has changed. If your court develops new content, please let us know about each new page/link that has been created. We will update the content in periodic updates.

7. Who should I contact if I have additional questions or see an error or bug in the visualization or its associated webpages?

Please direct any questions or information about errors/bugs to civics@fjc.gov.