'The judicial branch has a problem.' Will the Senate step in to deal with sexual misconduct?
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In December, Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski retired after more than a dozen women alleged sexual misconduct and harassment. Recriminations of a subtle sort followed: How could this have happened? Whose fault was it? A January CNN investigation found th'The judicial branch has a problem.' Will the Senate step in to deal with sexual misconduct?
In December, Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski retired after more than a dozen women alleged sexual misconduct and harassment. Recriminations of a subtle sort followed: How could this have happened? Whose fault was it? A January CNN investigation found that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts referred just four of more than 1,300 complaints against federal judges from 2015-16 for serious investigation. Turns out, that’s representative: Of the 5,000 complaints made over the preceding 10 years, extraordinarily few were deeply investigated—fewer than 10 per year on average. None are made public; even notices of corrective action omit the offenders’ names. The Senate Judiciary Committee began demanding answers from the administrative office. Ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been particularly vocal about the need to address misconduct in the judiciary: «It's where all Americans go to have their rights protected, and we look to federal judges and those who work for them to exemplify the ideals of our society, so I am really very concerned that this hearing is even necessary.» Unfortunately, the first jab at the problem—an intra-judiciary working group to address judicial misconduct created by Chief Justice John Roberts days after Kozinski’s resignation—fell short. In early June, the group issued a report that was, to put it mildly, inconsistent with the CNN investigation’s findings. Although the report had already met with criticism, James Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and leader of the working group, doubled down on its claims before the Judiciary Committee during its mid-June hearing on judicial misconduct. “The working group found the judiciary has a demonstrated history of dealing with misconduct very aggressively when we know about it and that our system to handle workplace conduct complaints works when it’s utilized, but it’s not utilized often.” Read more