The head of the working group formed to evaluate the federal judiciary’s procedures for dealing with judicial misconduct faced a string of critical questions yesterday from the Senate Judiciary Committee about the group’s efforts to gauge the prevalence of sexual harassment in the third branch, the National Law Journal reported. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told James Duff, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and head of the working group formed in the aftermath of revelations about Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski’s inappropriate conduct with law clerks, that his group’s report issued earlier this month ”kicks the can down the road” in terms of laying out viable, transparent processes court staff can use to report harassment. Grassley noted that nearly every federal agency has a watchdog to whom employees can take harassment complaints. The report of the nine-member working group, formed at the behest of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., acknowledged that “power disparities” between judges and employees may deter workers from making complaints. The report, among other things, proposed the establishment of an internal Office of Judicial Integrity to provide employees with advice regarding workplace conduct.
