Here is some brief background about the latest report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) concerning the variations in criminal caseloads among judges in U.S. District Courts. The report is embargoed for Monday, November 12, 2012 (6:30 PM EST Sunday) to allow time for additional reporting.

TRAC's report on the surprising differences in criminal caseloads of federal district court judges can be found at the following address:

Access to the report will require a user ID and password until Monday, November 12, 2012.

TRAC's effort to develop the case-by-case data needed for this report began more than 20 years ago, and extensive judge-by-judge sentencing records now have been updated through July 2012. For specific figures listing the number of criminal defendants each judge has sentenced, go to:

To register for media access to the Judge report during the embargo send an email to trac@syr.edu or call 315-443-3563.