Hirono, Durbin, Colleagues Release GAO Report on Sexual Harassment in the Judiciary System

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representatives Norma Torres (D-CA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report addressing the Judiciary’s policies and practices to prevent and respond to workplace misconduct.

The Administrative Office (AO) of the U.S. Courts 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.

“Everyone deserves to be safe and respected in the workplace,” said Senator 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.”

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 the Judiciary’s systems aligned with only 65% of federal standards evaluated. GAO noted that the lack of data collection “may limit” the Judiciary's ability to understand and fully address workplace misconduct within its organization.

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. GAO requested access to the survey data but was denied. Similarly, Congress requested access to the data and was denied. As of now, the circuit courts themselves have not had access to the data.

The full report is available here.

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