Sens. John Kennedy and Ron Wyden introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to help improve the federal court records system.

Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, say in introducing their Open Courts Act that the current Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) and the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) systems are outdated.

While PACER is open to the public for accessing federal court records and filings, the system is outdated and difficult to use, vulnerable to cyberattacks and expensive to maintain, they also say in their joint statement on X.

PACER also requires Americans to pay fees to obtain many public court records.

As of now, each U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals and U.S. Bankruptcy Court runs their own e-filing and public records system, but the Open Courts Act is aimed at centralizing CM/ECF and PACER into a unified system which will make records easier to access, strengthen cybersecurity and lower long-term operating costs.

“Americans should not have to sell plasma or wrestle with clunky government websites just to read public court records,” Kennedy said. “The Open Courts Act would drag this outdated system into the 21st century, protect court records from hackers and give taxpayers a better deal. Government services ought to serve American people – not make them want to put their head through a wall."

Kennedy also said the bill, if passed, would deliver long-overdue upgrades to PACER which would save taxpayers over $60 million dollars in annual operating costs, allowing federal courts to remove paywalls. The Open Courts Act would also fund the new program without relying on annual congressional appropriations. 

Wyden said removing “burdensome paywalls” would “provide the public, including researchers and journalists, with free access to public court documents.