In May of 2004, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist created a panel to review how judicial misconduct complaints were being handled and added this comment: to "see if there are any real problems to have a committee look into." The committee was to report directly to the Chief Justice. The committee operates within the Judicial Conference of the United States  which is the federal judiciary’s policy making body. It has been reviewing  proposals to change the present secretive discipline system for federal judges and develop uniform procedures. In the meantime, Congress has been considering a federal office to monitor federal judges.

The present system leaves to each circuit the discretion of what to do about complaints against federal judges. At the present time the process operates essentially behind closed doors in secrecy. There is no uniform procedure, no public disclosure and no accountability by public scrutiny. The proposed rules would change this.The proposed rules would make processing such complaints uniform throughout all the circuits. After three years of study, final approval is scheduled for March of next year.

Now the National Law Journal reports that the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals has caused controversy by issuing a reprimand to a U.S. District Court judge for sexual harassment but without disclosure as to the procedure followed and essentially operating behind closed doors. It’s sanction was to suspend the judge for 120 days, but with full pay. No disclosure was made as to how this sanction was arrived at either. The Journal notes that by doing this the 5th Circuit has illustrated why the rules should be changed. The suspension sanction seems to me to be nothing more then a four month paid vacation, but maybe I’m missing something.

In my view, it’s been rightly argued that since judges are appointed for life their behavior should be open and sanctions should be made public. There is no reason for secrecy over concerns of judges remaining independent since they are appointed for life. On the other hand, since they do serve for life they ought to be subject to public scrutiny. Secrecy involving public officials including federal judges seems to me to be un-American and since courts are to be open to the public, the judges conduct should likewise be a matter of public record as well.

By the way, there is no set procedure for processing complaints about the members of the United States Supreme Court itself. We all know how well a system works when any profession or group is given the right to monitor and discipline themselves without any guide lines and in total secrecy. It seems strange that most of our federal bench in the United States has been allowed to do so for so many years. No one, particularly not those serving as judges, should be above the law. Everyone should be accountable for their actions who serve in public government, even judges.