As a new sexual misconduct claim involving U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh reverberated around Capitol Hill, the justice and earlier complaints against him that were aired during his confirmation hearing last year were not discussed Tuesday at the formal meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who briefed the media following the Judicial Conference's meeting, said there had been no discussion about Kavanaugh and the procedures in place for misconduct claims against federal appeals judges who are later elevated to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the high court from the D.C. Circuit.

Last month, the Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability dismissed what were essentially appeals of rulings that said the federal courts were powerless to address misconduct complaints against Kavanaugh because he was now a Supreme Court justice. A panel said the rules governing the conduct of federal judges "unequivocally preclude review" of the merits of complaints against a judge "who has resigned his or her judicial office and thereafter been confirmed as a justice of the Supreme Court."

The misconduct complaints against Kavanaugh stemmed from his angry diatribe at his confirmation hearing. He denied claims that, as a Maryland high school student, he pinned a teenage girl to a bed and sexually assaulted her at a house party. Kavanaugh attacked Democrats and the Clintons for having participated in a "revenge" conspiracy in an effort to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court. He later walked back what he described as "emotional" testimony. "I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said," Kavanaugh said.

Tuesday's Judicial Conference meeting came amid renewed attention on Kavanaugh's conduct as a college student. Two New York Times reporters said they uncovered a new claim of sexual misconduct in which Kavanaugh "pushed his penis into the hand of a female student" during a "drunken dorm party." That student, according to the reporters, has no memory of the alleged incident. Kavanaugh, according to a Times excerpt of the book, did not speak with the two reporters because they could not agree to the terms of an interview.

The authors of the new book, "The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation," also reported the FBI did not interview witnesses who purportedly could have corroborated another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who was a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's. Ramirez also alleged Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face during a party. Kavanaugh has denied the claim. The new reporting, which the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday called "scurrilous," spurred calls for the justice's impeachment from Democratic presidential candidates.

The Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability did not forward any of the Kavanaugh ethics cases to the full Judicial Conference, which comprises the chief judges of the 13 federal appellate courts and Court of International Trade, a Judicial Conference spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

The Judicial Conference, which is the federal courts' policymaking arm, announced a new initiative Tuesday addressing workplace conduct in the judiciary. The conference approved a new model employment dispute resolution plan that is designed to simplify and expand options for addressing workplace misconduct.

The plan incorporates many of the recommendations made by the judiciary's workplace conduct working group, which was set up partly in response to sexual misconduct allegations by former Judge Alex Kozinski. The judge retired in 2017 from the Ninth Circuit in the face of those complaints.

"We're not finished" with efforts to address that issue within the judiciary workplace, said Garland, adding that it requires "continued vigilance. We don't plan on letting up on it."

 

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