On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the ABA Journal reported that a new Government Accountability Office study found 161 complaints had been filed by federal judiciary employees over a three-year period regarding alleged wrongful conduct at work.
Seventeen of those complaints specifically concerned federal judges, according to the report. Some of the complaints against judges involved allegations of abusive conduct, religious discrimination, and discrimination, as well as harassment based on an employee’s pregnancy.
While most of the complaints were dismissed due to lack of evidence, one complaint led to a judge receiving a private reprimand after an investigation. In another case, a judge was found to have created a hostile work environment for employees. However, the GAO report did not name any of the judges involved to protect privacy.
Two recent incidents that did become public involved Federal District Judge Joshua Kindred of Alaska and an unnamed federal judge. Judge Kindred resigned in July after a judicial council investigation found he had created a hostile work environment for his law clerks and engaged in an inappropriate relationship with one clerk. The other unnamed judge acknowledged having an overly harsh management style after a law clerk’s complaint and agreed to undergo remedial training.
The most common types of allegations made in the employment dispute claims examined involved discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and abusive conduct. The GAO report noted judges were named in 24 of the complaints, making them the fourth most commonly named party behind unit executives, managers or supervisors, and employees or coworkers.
From fiscal year 2020 to 2022, the number of complaints filed increased each year, rising from 124 allegations in 2020 to 106 in 2021 and 336 in 2022. Officials were unsure of the exact reason for the increase but suggested more in-person work returning after the pandemic or heightened awareness of reporting options could be factors.
While the federal judiciary was found to follow 13 out of 20 recommended best practices from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for addressing workplace misconduct, the GAO report identified some areas for improvement. These included ensuring all training materials clearly explain the consequences of unacceptable behavior and the investigation process. A lack of formal performance metrics to track misconduct issues and collect informal complaint data was also cited.
In its response, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts stated it made efforts to cooperate with the GAO study but could only provide two current employees and former workers for interviews due to privacy concerns. The judiciary plans to use results from an upcoming employee survey to develop stronger performance measures around its policies.
Source: ABA Journal
