Chief justice details efforts to combat workplace misconduct
U.S. Court News
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is using his annual report on the federal judiciary to highlight the steps the branch has taken to combat inappropriate conduct in the workplace.
In December 2017, Roberts asked that a working group be put together to examine the judiciary's workplace conduct policies. His request followed news reports about prominent federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski, who retired following accusations by women, including former law clerks, that he had touched them inappropriately, made lewd comments and shown them pornography.
The working group of judges and judiciary officials that Roberts asked be convened issued a report in June, finding that inappropriate conduct is not widespread among the judiciary branch's 30,000 employees but also is "not limited to a few isolated instances." The group offered a range of recommendations for further action.
Roberts, in his New Year's Eve report, endorsed those recommendations, which focus on revising the codes of conduct the judiciary has for judges and employees, streamlining the process for identifying and correcting misconduct, and expanding training programs aimed at preventing inappropriate behavior.
Roberts did not say anything in the report about the sexual assault allegations that nearly derailed the confirmation of the court's newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh. In testimony before senators in September, psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a drunken Kavanaugh groped her and tried to take off her clothes at a party decades ago when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the allegations.
Related listings
-
Supreme Court rejects Trump plea to enforce asylum ban
U.S. Court News 12/22/2018A divided Supreme Court won’t let the Trump administration begin enforcing a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Chief Justice John Roberts joined his four more liberal colleagues Friday in ruling agains...
-
Pakistani court set to announce verdict against ex-PM Sharif
U.S. Court News 12/21/2018An anti-corruption court is set to rule on two cases against Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.Sharif, who was removed from office last year after being disqualified from serving his third stint as prime minister, could be sentenced to pr...
-
New voter ID law immediately challenged in N Carolina court
U.S. Court News 12/20/2018The North Carolina law detailing a new voter photo identification requirement got challenged in court Wednesday mere moments after the Republican-led General Assembly completed the override of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the measure.Six vote...
Texas Adopts Statewide Texting-While-Driving Ban
Effective September 1, 2017, Texas will become the 47th state to pass a statewide ban on texting while driving. Governor Abbott’s signing of House Bill 62 is an effort to unify Texas under a uniform ban and remedy the “patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.”
The bill specifically prohibits drivers from reading, writing, or sending an electronic message on a device unless the vehicle is stopped. That includes texting and emailing. It does not, however, prohibit dialing a number to call someone, talking on the phone using a hands-free device, or using the phone’s GPS system.
Violations would be punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $99, to be set by each municipality. Although penalties could rise to as much as $200 for repeat offenders.
Studies have found that a driver’s reaction time is half as much when a driver is distracted by sending or reading a text message. According to state officials, in 2015 more than 105,000 traffic accidents in Texas involved distracted driving, leading to at least 476 fatalities.