Two members of the U.S. House have introduced a bill to let members of the public see federal court documents, without being charged 10 cents per page. Currently anyone can see any U.S. Supreme Court brief, just by going to the U.S. Supreme Court web page. But if anyone wants to see documents filed in a lower federal court, one must be signed up with PACER. PACER charges ten cents per page. Also the pay feature of PACER requires users to establish an account and use a password, which is cumbersome. If PACER were free, there would be no need for any of that.

The sponsors are Mike Quigley (D-Illinois) and Doug Collins (R-Georgia). The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet. The bill is called the Electronic Court Records Reform Act. Thanks to Howard Bashman for this news.