Click HERE to return to the Civics Education and Outreach Overview webpage. 

The visualization is best viewed on a large screen monitor; viewing it on small screen devices (e.g., mobile phones, small tablets) may result in unusual or offset formatting and possibly reduced functionality. When switching views within the visualization, there may be a slight lag as the data populates.

Not all available civics content is included in the visualization. The absence of content within the visualization does not necessarily mean a court has no civics programs or web content and should not be so interpreted.

Summary information about the visualization, including its purpose and how to use it, is provided below. For the most complete information about the visualization, please refer to the Instructions and Other Helpful Information and FAQs webpages.

Visualization Purpose

The purpose of this visualization/map is to facilitate access to civics education and outreach content available on federal court websites.

The content in the visualization was primarily collected during a Federal Judicial Center (FJC) review of the civics content on federal court websites, which was completed on May 17, 2023. Web content developed since that date may also be incorporated in the visualization if a court reported the content to the FJC. 

• For the visualization, civics education is 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.

How to Use the Visualization

There are two dashboards, or views, in the visualization: one for civics educational resources and one for civics programs.

In both dashboards, making a selection in the Change Court Type dropdown menu will change whether appellate courts, district/territorial/specialized courts, or bankruptcy courts are displayed.

• When appellate courts are selected, the map will show only the outlines of the federal circuits, with each circuit shaded in a different color.
• When either the bankruptcy or the district/territorial/specialized courts are selected, the map will show the outlines of all applicable judicial districts for that court type; all districts within the same circuit are shaded in the same color. 

In both dashboards, hover over a circuit or district to display 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 in their courthouses, sometimes operated in collaboration with another organization. Learning centers are depicted in the visualization with an icon. Hovering over this icon reveals a link to navigate to the learning center’s website.

Each dashboard in the visualization has its own content drop down menu (either Choose a Resource Topic or Choose a Program Info Page Type). Making a drop down selection shades the dashboard to indicate courts with relevant content. Hovering over a shaded court displays links to its highlighted content. To clear selections made in a dropdown menu and return to the main view for a dashboard, please either choose Select from the applicable dropdown menu or click twice on the rectangular "Reset" button (note: there may be a slight lag while the reset loads once this button is clicked). 

Courts located outside the contiguous United States or in small geographic areas are presented in inserts on the map. Their content otherwise works similarly to that for other courts. For the two courts with specialized jurisdiction (Court of International Trade and Court of Federal Claims), the court logos in their map insert are colored when their websites have relevant highlighted content for a selected dropdown category, but their logos are in black and white when their websites do not have relevant highlighted content for a selected dropdown category. Court inserts are only displayed on the map when the applicable court type is selected; the insert will appear blank on the map for inapplicable court types.