WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal judges who staged a protest over the monitoring of their Internet use are now pressing top officials to end the practice.

Judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered staff to disable monitoring software in May. They contend the practice is improper and probably illegal.

Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the 9th Circuit told judicial leaders in a June memo they want to reach "a responsible, common sense resolution ... without further acrimony."

She said in a statement Wednesday that they had asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to review the matter and would not comment until a decision is reached.

About a third of the nation's 40 million online workers are monitored by surveillance software, according to a recent study by the University of Denver's Privacy Foundation.

Foundation director Stephen Keating said the judges' complaints are integral to the workplace surveillance debate and may spark a change in attitude by workers who have largely viewed monitoring as reasonable.

"If the judges are worried about their e-mail and Internet use being monitored, then we all should be," Keating said.

The protest software shutdown, which lasted a week, affected 10,000 court employees in the Circuit and two other court districts. The 9th Circuit covers nine states and two territories.

Leonidas Ralph Mecham, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts in Washington, issued a security alert afterward. Mecham said the shutdown put at risk the entire judiciary network.

Mecham reminded judges that an analysis had revealed that as much as half of Internet use on court computers may not be directly work-related. He said court officials believe monitoring software is appropriate technology that helps detect "gross misuse of government resources."

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the courts' policy-making group of 27 judges, is expected to take up the subject at its next meeting Sept. 11. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist heads the group.

"We are concerned about the propriety and even the legality of monitoring Internet usage," Schroeder wrote in a June 29 memo, which also defended the protest.

She discounted fears of security breaches. Staff monitored activity that week and found no problems, she said