Ethics Complaints On Kavanaugh Scrutinized by Tenth Circuit

Ethics complaints filed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his Supreme Court confirmation are being transferred to another judicial circuit, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.

According to a letter made public from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the complaints — filed against Kavanaugh in his former court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. District — will now go to the Tenth Circuit, which covers the western United States. 

According to BuzzFeed News, ethics complaints against judges who’ve retired or resigned have been dismissed as moot in the past, but judicial ethics experts have said there’s no precedent for what happens when a lower court judge is elevated to the Supreme Court. 

In a statement, first reported by the ABA Journal, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, the most senior judge in the Tenth Circuit, said the complaints “do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge,” but that the complaints “seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The D.C. Circuit’s chief judge, Merrick Garland, apparently recused himself, the ABA Journal reported.

The misconduct complaints concern Kavanaugh’s answers about his work in the George W. Bush administration and his comments about Democrats using allegations of sexual assault against him, according to the Washington Post.

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