Judiciary sex-abuse rules Roberts’ focus

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts is promising a careful evaluation of the federal judiciary’s sexual-misconduct policies and an effort to highlight the work of court employees after the year’s destructive hurricanes.

Writing in his annual report on the judiciary, issued Sunday, Roberts touched only briefly on the topic of workplace sexual misconduct, which has in recent months brought down men in entertainment, politics and the media. In December, prominent federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski retired after accusations by women that he had touched them inappropriately, made lewd comments and shown them pornography.

“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,” Roberts wrote, without mentioning Kozinski by name.

Roberts had previously asked that a working group examine the judiciary’s workplace conduct policies, with a report expected by May 1. Roberts wrote that the group will examine whether changes are needed in a number of areas, from codes of conduct to the handling of misconduct complaints.

Roberts spent most of the report talking about the judiciary’s response to this year’s devastating hurricanes, which affected Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and also mentioned wildfires in California.

Roberts praised judges and court employees in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in particular, saying that after hurricanes Irma and Maria, they “responded in dedicated and even heroic fashion,” continuing to work “even in the face of personal emergencies.”