美国国家公共电台 NPR Sen. Grassley Says Report On Sexual Harassment In Judiciary Simply Kicks The Can

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

So the U.S. Supreme¹ Court building is directly across the street from the U.S. Capitol. But yesterday, the two branches of government were at odds² over who should direct how the judicial³ branch deals with sexual harassment⁴. Here's NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁵: In late 2017, Federal Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski stepped down amid widespread allegations in the press that he sexually harassed⁶ female law clerks. In the wake of the charges, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed a special 9-member working group, a majority of them women. Their charge - to make recommendations for how the judicial branch handles sexual harassment in the workplace.

Two weeks ago, the working group report was released. It called for changes in how harassment complaints are filed and investigated and a change in all employee materials to make clear that the confidentiality⁷ of judicial deliberations does not extend to misconduct by a judge. Other recommendations were for whistleblower protections, a complaint hotline and a public reporting of statistics on complaints and how they were resolved. Within days of the report being issued, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley announced his dissatisfaction. And yesterday, at a hearing on the subject, he threw down the gauntlet.

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CHUCK GRASSLEY: The judicial branch has a problem. They have to deal with it, or Congress will have to do it for the courts.

TOTENBERG: The working group's recommendations, he said, were insufficient⁸.

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GRASSLEY: It was a real chance to undertake reforms. But in too many ways, this vague report kicks that can down the road.

TOTENBERG: It should be said that for more than a decade, Grassley has pushed his proposal that there be an inspector⁹ general to ride herd¹⁰ on the judiciary, in much the way inspectors¹¹ general in the executive branch investigate and audit¹² executive branch departments. But James Duff, the director of the Administrative¹³ Office of the U.S. Courts, who led the judicial working group, pushed back hard on that suggestion, calling it unnecessary.

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JAMES DUFF: We perform the same functions of an inspector general in our offices - at the Administrative Office of the Courts. We spend millions of taxpayer¹⁴ dollars every year on independent, outside audits¹⁵.

TOTENBERG: Moreover, he said of the inspector general proposal...

DUFF: It's unconstitutional.

TOTENBERG: Nobody asked him why. But the thinking in the judicial branch is that under the Constitution's separation of powers, Congress cannot tell the judiciary what to do. And while Duff didn't say that, you can be sure he wouldn't have made such a categorical statement without consulting the chief justice and possibly other members of the judiciary.

Duff, however, admitted without reservation that the current system for handling harassment complaints is not working. Indeed, he said, there were zero sexual harassment complaints filed in 2017. As a member of the chief justice's working group, he said, he'd learned that many employees have been discouraged from reporting harassment, told that the complaint would have to be reported to the chief judge of their court who might well be a friend of the accused judge. That's why, he said, the working group recommended a variety of ways to report harassment outside of the judicial circuit, including a separate office in Washington, D.C.

There are 30,000 employees in the judicial branch of the federal government. Only a small fraction are judges or law clerks. But they were the focus of this hearing. Jenny Yang, former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said the judiciary has a number of risk factors that are powerful predictors of harassment.

JENNY YANG: These include significant power disparities, employees new to the workforce¹⁶, isolated¹⁷ workplaces and workforces¹⁸ where men historically dominate leadership posts.

TOTENBERG: It's difficult to create a trusted and independent process when the judiciary is regulating itself, she added. Jaime Santos, a former law clerk who's been working with various law clerk associations, said she's heard about currently sitting judges who have engaged in sexual misconduct in the past several months. Pressed as to why there is now pressure for change, Santos said that having more women in powerful positions makes a difference. And she urged the judiciary committee to look closely at President Trump's judicial nominees¹⁹.

JAIME SANTOS: If 85 percent of the new nominees are white men, it's not going to really create a lot of positive change.

TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

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