[mlissner]

I (the director of Free Law Project) agree with a lot of the other responses here, but I'll just add two points. First, technically PACER isn't a website. If you ask the judiciary, they'll tell you that PACER is only the public access system. So it's nuts that it rakes in $150M/year considering that Congress said they can only charge money for PACER to the extent it pays for itself. All of us that work on / use / think about PACER need to reframe this in our minds. PACER is not a website! (We're as guilty of this as anybody.) So...how much should it cost to run a basic credential system?

The second point is this: When should the gov't charge fees for services? Should cops cost money when they come help you? Schools? Yes, the fees help the gov't survive when Congress can't set a budget, but is that worth it or should our basic legal documents be freely available just like the courthouse itself is?