Alaska Attorney Joshua Kindred speaks during a judicial nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, U.S. December 4, 2019.
US Senate Judiciary Committee/via Reuters
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US Senate Judiciary Committee/via Reuters
A federal judge in Alaska resigned this week after investigators concluded that he created a hostile work environment by sending vulgar text messages to employees, having sex with a former law clerk and lying to coworkers about the relationship.
Joshua Kindred, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and served just four years in office, did not give a reason for leaving the lifetime job. in a letter of resignation.
But his move comes after the 9th Judicial Councilth The court found he had repeatedly lied and violated laws requiring judges to maintain high standards of conduct and “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary”.
Investigators interviewed 21 witnesses, including most of his current and former law clerks, as well as 700 pages of text messages. Their report is cited One text in which the judge tells law clerks, “Who cares about ethics, we need to pay you.” In another, he contemplates punching multiple Supreme Court justices and bringing Patron, heroin, and whip-its to a party in his office.
“Judge Kindred’s conduct demonstrates that he was, for the most part, completely unaware of his problematic conduct, which resulted in at least three law enforcement officers suffering in silence at various times,” the Judicial Council wrote in a 30-page order and certification. “The Council does not believe that Judge Kindred fully understands the seriousness of his conduct even at this time.”
The judiciary is now weighing next steps, including whether to refer Kindred to Congress for possible impeachment, which could effectively bar him from holding future elected federal office or other jobs in the federal government.
In a written response to investigators, the judge said he “failed to walk a fine line and crossed lines that I should not have crossed, particularly in relation to my general tendency to treat employees as friends and to let my personal and professional difficulties become a topic of conversation”.
Kindred also said he was not the “aggressor” during two sexual encounters with a former employee in October 2022. In the first incident, the judge kissed her and grabbed her buttocks, the employee said. In the second incident, she went into the judge’s temporary apartment and he grabbed her. “I just remember thinking there’s nothing I can do about this, like this is going to happen,” the employee told investigators.
Mary Murguia, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appealsth The court said it takes allegations of misconduct seriously.
“The judiciary is entrusted with the power to govern itself and, in doing so, must hold its federal judges to the highest standards of integrity and fairness,” she said in a written statement. “This is a serious and sensitive matter by all accounts.”
In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts said the judiciary has “a robust system in place that works to respond effectively to workplace misconduct. In recent years, the judiciary has taken steps to further ensure that law clerks and other judicial employees are treated with respect and dignity by strengthening processes for addressing misconduct and improving accountability.”
Advocates of law clerkship emphasize the huge power differential between clerks, who are often recent law school graduates, and judges who can make recommendations that can determine their careers.
Olivia Warren, a North Carolina criminal defense attorney at Thomas, Ferguson & Beskind who denounced another federal judge years ago, said the system does not do enough to protect employees.
“I think this is another shameful, shameful, shameful day for the judiciary,” Warren said. “To the extent that the judiciary says they are reporting the mechanisms and the changes they have made are working, there is nothing in this report that suggests that the law clerks actually reported.”
In fact, it appears that the first tip may have come from someone other than one of Kindred’s law clerks. The clerks “suffered in silence,” the report says, expressing deep reluctance to cooperate with investigators. It’s unclear whether the judge continued to supervise his clerks throughout the lengthy investigation, or whether the judiciary took any steps to help them.
“While I am pleased that the federal judiciary took this issue seriously in this case, I am also appalled that this type of misconduct was allowed to go on for so long,” said Aliza Shatzman, who started the Judicial Accountability Project to share information about problematic judges after her own bad experience as a law clerk.
Deeva Shah, another advocate for the office workers, said there has been too much focus on “minutae,” including changes the judiciary has made to the complaint-filing process since the big scandal seven years ago. But there are still no uniform standards for reporting abuse and no clear rules across the country. Instead, each district or court operates its own system and governs itself.
“People don’t feel comfortable reporting,” said Shah, an attorney at Keker, Van Nest and Peters. “That’s implicit in the entire order. Making small changes to the process isn’t enough here.”
Millions of people who experience workplace harassment have workplace protections, whether they report it to private companies, nonprofit groups, or even the U.S. Congress. But that’s not true for the roughly 30,000 people who work for the federal judiciary. That branch of government is largely exempt from civil rights laws that protect workers and job applicants from discrimination.
Rep. Norma Torres, D-California, has pushed the judiciary to do more to protect workers. Torres said Judge Kindred is comfortable in an atmosphere that honors silence and fear.
“The judiciary must embrace transparency, consistently disclose these decisions, and publicly disclose data about its protocols to prevent workplace misconduct,” Torres said in a written statement. “In Congress, I will continue to use every tool at my disposal, including the power of the purse, to protect judicial officers and bring transparency to the judiciary.”
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