The federal judiciary is establishing a group to study the scope of safeguards against workplace misbehavior, a move that comes two days after a prominent U.S. appeals judge resigned amid allegations of inappropriate conduct with law clerks, the National Law Journal reported. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. asked the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to set up the working group, according to a memo the agency’s director, James Duff, distributed on Wednesday to all federal judges, public defenders, district and circuit court executives and other staff. The memo mentioned various ways court employees can make misconduct complaints, and the memo noted that the Federal Judicial Center this week added a statement to the law clerk handbook that said nothing about the confidentiality of the courts precludes the filing of any workplace complaint.
