The federal judiciary should award monetary damages to employees who suffer workplace misconduct at the hands of judges and increase transparency regarding how courts handle worker complaints internally, according to a congressionally directed study released Wednesday.
The study’s 34 recommendations appeared in a 200-page report by the judiciary’s research arm and a congressionally chartered academic institution. The report examined the courts’ current systems for addressing complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and other misconduct.
The report found inconsistencies in how federal courts nationwide handle workplace complaints, a lack of a comprehensive system to collect and analyze data on these cases, and a failure by about a quarter of courts’ websites to provide required information on addressing employment disputes.
Representative Norma Torres, a California Democrat, released the report. Torres had secured language in a 2023 appropriations bill authorizing the study and has advocated in Congress for greater protections for judicial employees. “The report reveals startling findings, emphasizing the absolute need for internal reforms,” she said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the judiciary’s administrative arm, stated that the judiciary was “committed to fostering an exemplary workplace” and added that a working group was assessing ways to build on recent reforms.
The report’s release came a week after a federal judge in Alaska, Joshua Kindred, resigned following an investigation by the 9th Circuit Judicial Council. The investigation found that Kindred had created a hostile work environment for his law clerks and fostered an inappropriate sexualized relationship with one of them.
Following the rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017 and subsequent sexual harassment allegations against some judges, including Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal judiciary has sought to reform its handling of misconduct complaints. Kozinski resigned after former female clerks accused him of harassment; he suggested he was misunderstood and apologized.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts directed the creation of a judiciary working group to examine reforms. The judiciary adopted several of the group’s recommendations, including changes to internal systems for addressing complaints and explicitly prohibiting abusive conduct.
The judiciary’s internal systems remain the primary way its 30,000 employees can address their complaints. Unlike other federal employees, judicial employees are not covered by federal anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and generally cannot sue in court. This inability to sue also means they cannot seek monetary damages, which Wednesday’s report suggested may have deterred some employees from pursuing complaints.
The report recommended the judiciary consider allowing judicial employees to seek monetary damages and adopt new guidelines for publicly releasing redacted decisions in such cases, which are rarely made public. Judicial employees must currently pay for their own legal representation, rather than hiring attorneys who work on a contingency-fee basis, a practice the report suggested changing.
