Durbin, Hirono, House Leaders Release GAO Report Constrained By AO Blocking Access To Federal Audit Of Sexual Harassment In the Judiciary System

07.30.24

Durbin, Hirono, House Leaders Release GAO Report Constrained By AO Blocking Access To Federal Audit Of Sexual Harassment In the Judiciary System

Report requested by Members finds that judiciary has no performance measures and conducts no evaluations of the efficacy of its workplace misconduct protocols

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, alongside U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and U.S. Representatives Norma Torres (D-CA-35), Hank Johnson (D-GA-04), and Jerry Nadler (D-NY-12), released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report addressing the judiciary's policies and practices to prevent and respond to workplace misconduct.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) failed to fully cooperate with the GAO audit, a process that relies heavily on transparency. Over the two-year study, the judiciary only permitted the GAO to interview one current judiciary employee and one former employee to gain an "employee perspective," severely limiting the GAO's ability to assess the practical implementation of the judiciary's policies. The tactics used to delay and restrict the GAO auditors' access to information and court personnel are deeply concerning.

"Every employee should be entitled to a workplace free of sexual harassment-period. That includes employees of our judicial system. The lack of urgency by the federal courts' administrative office to root out sexual harassment is shameful, and the unjustifiable defiance by the office to assist with this important study is in keeping with the AO's reticence to embracing meaningful transparency. Additional steps must be taken to ensure the judiciary protects its employees from misconduct with robust policies and procedures," said Durbin.

The GAO report concluded that the judiciary "does not have performance measures in place for its workplace conduct efforts and has not evaluated the effectiveness of its efforts." Overall, GAO found that judicial systems aligned with only 65% of federal standards evaluated. Deficient areas include methods to ensure written policy is implemented correctly and employee rights are substantive in practice; processes to prevent, identify, and end retaliation; training, where training materials met only 23.5% of the federal standards evaluated; and data collection, where the judiciary does not collect adequate data on complaints including complaints involving judges and complaints using the most common form of dispute resolution, among other areas. GAO noted that the lack of data collection "may limit" the judiciary's ability to understand and fully address workplace misconduct within its organization.

"Everyone deserves to be safe and respected in the workplace," said Hirono. "But this report makes clear that years after its workplace misconduct problems came to light, the federal judiciary will not prevent workplace misconduct, leaving employees vulnerable to abuse without any recourse. The AO's refusal to fully cooperate with this report underscores its unwillingness to even understand this issue, let alone address it. If the federal judiciary won't take even basic action to protect its employees, Congress will. I look forward to introducing strengthened legislation with my colleagues in the weeks ahead to protect judiciary employees and stamp out the workplace misconduct that persists in our courts."

"No American should suffer sexual misconduct, abuse, or harassment while on the job and the federal Judiciary must be held to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct. The era of judges abusing their power and taking comfort in an environment that rewards silence and fear ends now," said Torres. "If the Judiciary can or will not address these issues adequately, then Congress will do it for them. I urge the Judiciary to rapidly establish adequate and transparent systems to handle sexual harassment claims that meet the standard all other government entities adhere to. This report is a testament that the current system is failing to protect the over 30,000 employees throughout the federal Judiciary and that reliance on the good character and conduct of individuals alone has been grossly insufficient. The delays and restrictions placed on GAO auditors' access to information and court employees is unacceptable. The attention to this severe lack of transparency has captured the attention of the public and members of the House and Senate. The time for change is now."

"All workers deserve basic workplace rights that protect them from harassment, discrimination and other forms of misconduct," said Johnson. "While it's encouraging to see that the federal judiciary is making strides on behalf of its more than 30,00 employees, this report reinforces the fact that more work still needs to be done. The fact that federal judiciary employees are denied basic civil rights protections - rights that the rest of the federal government and most private sector employees enjoy - is just flat wrong and must be remedied. The Constitution and the American people have entrusted the judiciary as the guardian of the rule of law and yet it doesn't even provide its own employees the full protection of it. The fix here is not revolutionary and should not be partisan. I look forward to continuing the fight to protect workers and providing the judiciary with the legislative tools to help us make this a reality."

"The Federal Judiciary has an obligation to ensure a workplace free of abuse and harassment, which is why this report is so jarring," said Nadler. "I'm proud to join my colleagues in this bicameral effort to help strengthen the judiciary's policies and procedures to ensure that the thousands of judicial employees who dedicate themselves to seeking justice for others are no longer vulnerable to misconduct, harassment, and discrimination in their own workplace. This GAO report demonstrates that while the judiciary has put into place some measures to address these issues, there is still a long way to go as the judiciary has failed to take effective steps that numerous other government institutions, including Congress, have already taken. This report provides us with a blueprint on what is left to be done and I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect the integrity of the judicial branch and providing the thousands of judiciary employees the same workplace protections that other federal government and private sector employees already enjoy."

According to judiciary officials, a survey was conducted from January 12 through February 17, 2023, and they received responses from approximately 14,000 out of the 28,000 employees surveyed. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) requested access to the survey data but was denied. Similarly, Congress also requested access to the data and was denied. As of now, the circuit courts themselves have not had access to the data.

The full GAO report is available here. A summary report is available here.

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