LEGAL/SUPREME COURT: “Chief Justice John Roberts said Sunday that the federal judiciary would assess its own policies for addressing sexual harassment involving judges and court employees, joining a national reckoning that, after exposing sordid activity by Hollywood titans, superstar journalists and elected officials, claimed the career of a prominent U.S. circuit judge.
‘Events in recent months have illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, and events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune,’ the chief justice wrote in his annual report on the judiciary, a veiled reference to the December retirement of Judge Alex Kozinski from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals following allegations that he ogled and commented explicitly on some female law clerks, showed them pornography and touched them inappropriately…
Chief Justice Roberts said he had asked James Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, ‘to assemble a working group to examine our practices,’ and consider ‘whether changes are needed in our codes of conduct, our guidance to employees—including law clerks—on issues of confidentiality and reporting of instances of misconduct, our educational programs, and our rules for investigating and processing misconduct complaints.’
The chief justice said such concerns ‘warrant serious attention from all quarters of the judicial branch,’ adding that he was certain that most who serve the court system ‘have no tolerance for harassment and share the view that victims must have clear and immediate recourse to effective remedies.’
However, the Supreme Court itself took no known action after one of its own members, Justice Clarence Thomas, publicly was accused of groping a 23-year-old woman at a scholarship dinner in 1999.”
-Jess Bravin, “Chief Justice Asks Federal Judiciary to Assess Its Sexual Harassment Policies,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 31, 2017 09:01pm