§297 Assignment of Judges to Courts of the Freely Associated Compact States

Summary

The Chief Justice of the United States or the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals can send a judge from the Ninth Circuit (a circuit, district, magistrate, or territorial judge) to work temporarily on a court in one of the freely associated compact states. The judge must agree to go, and an official in that country must ask for the help and the extra judge must be needed to handle the court’s work. Congress allows those judges to accept and keep payments from those countries to cover travel, transportation, and living costs, or a fair per diem instead. The judge must tell the Administrative Office of the United States Courts about any money received.