Registration is available online, and a mail-in form is available, too.
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NAPCO Conference 2025
Join NAPCO in Bellevue, Washington August 17-20, 2025
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NAPCO membership is open to presiding, chief and leadership judges, court executives and others …
Read more →Registration is now open for the 2018 NAPCO Conference
AJA Statement on Separating Immigrant Children from their Families at the U.S. Border
The American Judges Association (AJA) joins our colleagues in the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) in deploring the recent policy decision to separate children of all ages from their parents at the U.S. border, without any due process of law. We are heartened to read news reports that the worldwide and bipartisan U.S. condemnation of this practice has now produced an executive order that ends outright separation, by requiring “detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”
NAPCO Participates in Dred Scott Symposium on Reconciliation and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts
The Dred Scott case, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1857, was an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868), which gave African Americans full citizenship. This controversial ruling has been universally denounced as one of the Supreme Court’s worst decisions.
NAPCO Creates 3-Year Leadership and Governance Strategic Campaign
NAPCO’s Strategic Planning Committee, co-chaired by the Hon. Paula Carey, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Trial Courts, and Sandra Lonergan, Trial Court Administrator for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida in Miami/Dade County, recently developed a set of initiatives that chart the organization’s course over the next three fiscal years (July 2018 – June 2021).… Continue Reading NAPCO Creates 3-Year Leadership and Governance Strategic Campaign
Making the Case for Bail Reform: Cuyahoga County
If you were arrested, could you afford a bond of $500? Three different people could give you three different answers to that question. One person might be able to pay on the spot, another would never be able to afford that much, and a third person could pay it, but only after sitting in jail for a week or so trying to raise the funds.
Continue Reading Making the Case for Bail Reform: Cuyahoga County
Improved justice for the poor as St. Louis County public defenders get help from private attorneys
Overburdened public defenders in St. Louis County are going to get some help from private attorneys courtesy of an order from Presiding Circuit Court Judge Douglas R. Beach. Beach has been meeting for months with criminal justice stakeholders to find ways to reduce defenders’ workloads. He has come up with an equitable solution to help make sure low-income defendants in county courts get the fair representation they deserve.
If a nation has no independent judiciary, rights are merely ’empty promises’
Judicial independence. Some have pointed out that a remarkable feature of this principle is how few words it takes to enunciate it, and how many years it takes to understand and implement it. Others speak reverently about the principle while referencing phrases such as “separation of powers” and “rule of law.” After 28 years of judicial experience, I now have a firm grasp of the principle of judicial independence. I am further aided in my understanding of the principle by looking at our nation’s history.
Continue Reading If a nation has no independent judiciary, rights are merely ’empty promises’