About Us

The Judicial Family Institute (JFI) is a national organization dedicated to providing information and education on topics of concern and importance to judicial households and their extended family members. We set aside personal differences in politics, geography, and positions on controversial issues to attend to JFI matters.

The JFI is a subcommittee of the Past President's Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices and enjoys an affiliation with the National Center for State Courts, the host of our website.

Through educational programs, research, and this website, JFI encourages the exchange of information and resources between judicial branch educators and staff, judicial family members, and various organizations. Among current areas of interest to judicial families are home and travel security, ethics guidelines, judicial elections, and quality of life issues. The public benefits when helpful information about public family life is shared with members of judges’ households. 

Judicial Family Institute (JFI) Committee business meetings occur twice yearly during meetings of the Conference of Chief Justices and by conference call at other times. Voting members and advisors may include spouses of state chief justices, spouses of other appellate judges and court administrators, judges, judicial educators, and others interested in information and education on judicial family topics.

Collecting helpful information and selecting articles for the JFI website are JFI's main goals. Thousands of individuals are served monthly through the website. States copy JFI articles for distribution at their state judicial education conferences and share them with their judges.

JFI also sponsors Law and Literature sessions for the Conference of Chief Justices described in the Law and Literature section of this website.