A Federal law authorizes judges to "request" an attorney to represent indigent civil plaintiffs.

Would extend through June 30, 1997, a program authorizing judges to allow television cameras into their courts.

Mr. Pataki also announced today that he had signed legislation that authorizes judges to sentence people convicted of graffiti vandalism to clean up their, or other people's, messes.

The new statute authorizes judges in the rest of the state to impose such sentences.

By authorizing judges to ignore the constitutional text and to substitute their own conclusions about which rights the people considered "fundamental," Cardozo thwarted popular sovereignty as well as liberty.

It authorizes judges to jail before trial defendants charged with certain serious crimes if prosecutors can show that no bail or release conditions could assure "the safety of any other person and the community."

A Federal law, the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, authorizes judges to award attorneys' fees to "prevailing parties" in suits against the Government.

We authorized judges to take juveniles into custody for contempt of court.

The Court was plainly correct to rule that the century-old Federal statute authorizing judges to "request" a lawyer's service doesn't confer power to compel it.

A divided Federal appeals court today struck down the law authorizing judges to appoint the special prosecutors who investigate suspected crimes by high-level officials of the executive branch.