A joint report released Wednesday found systemic failures in the judiciary’s oversight of workplace abuses, leading to sexual assault, harassment and misconduct. 

“No American should suffer sexual misconduct, abuse, or harassment while on the job, yet it continues even in the halls of our judicial system where decisions about every aspect of our lives are made,” California Representative Norma Torres said in a statement. “The era of judges abusing their power and taking comfort in an environment that rewards silence and fear are over.”

Torres, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, commissioned a report by the Federal Judicial Center and the National Academy of Public Administration to assess how the judiciary prevents and manages workplace misconduct. 

Investigators uncovered broad inadequacies and a lack of transparency leaving employees at risk. A key finding includes the lack of any entity in the judiciary tasked with oversight of systems to prevent or confront misconduct. 

“The report reveals startling findings, emphasizing the absolute need for internal reforms,” Torres said. “We have waited on the judiciary to prove it is capable of protecting its employees, and sadly it has failed to do so. Congress will be forced to step in.”

Law clerks, the report found, were in an especially perilous position because of their dependent relationship with judges. The report said the judiciary must address underlying structural issues that lead to these power imbalances. 

Courts are required to have employee dispute plans posted on their websites so workers know their rights. Investigators found that only 26% of public websites met all the requirements while 11% of court websites failed to include any workplace conduct information.

Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the report demonstrates why the judiciary has struggled with ethical abuses. 

The report comes a week after U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred, a Donald Trump appointee to the District of Alaska, resigned amid sexual misconduct claims. An internal investigation found Kindred had created a hostile work environment, encouraging his clerks to rate people based on sexual desirability. Kindred also had an inappropriate sexual relationship with one clerk. 

Sherman said the report was very powerful not only because it demonstrates how the judiciary perpetuated these abuses but also because of the solutions it offers. 

“This report is important, not just because of the systemic failures that it revealed with respect to workplace sexual harassment and other misconduct, not just important because of the reforms that it provides evidence for, but it is also a roadmap for how, whether it’s financial conflicts of interest, bias, the acceptance of gifts from individuals with business before the court,” Sherman said in a phone call. “It is a roadmap for how Congress can wield its oversight and appropriations authority to push for more accountability from a judiciary that is, as this report demonstrates, wildly unaccountable to the American public and to Congress itself.” 

In 2017 year-end report, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a call to action to ensure the judiciary’s 30,000 employees had a safe workplace. This led the Judicial Conference — the court’s policymaking body — to adopt a code of conduct in 2019. 

Since then, however, Roberts has doubted claims of systematic workplace misconduct in the judiciary. In Roberts’ 2021 year-end report, he said that several high-profile incidents did not reflect a pervasive problem for the courts. 

Lawmakers ordered a federal audit of the judiciary’s systems in 2020. It took two years for the Government Accountability Office to begin its investigation and the report still has not been released. 

In 2021, Torres called for a national climate survey on the judiciary’s workplace environment. The survey was completed in 2023 but the judiciary has not made the results public. 

Torres said she ordered this study after the Administrative Office of the Courts refused to fully cooperate with an audit into the judiciary’s handling of sexual harassment. 

“The Judiciary must be held to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct, and it will take all of us to bring light and transparency into the Judiciary,” Torres said. 

Torres said the report demonstrated the need for the Judiciary Accountability Act, a bipartisan bill that would extend legal protections to judicial branch employees and protect whistleblowers from retaliation.