The Judicial Council may have reached the conclusion required by law, but it is wholly unsatisfactory to anyone looking for moral leadership from our nation’s top jurists.

That Chief Justice Roberts sent the complaints to a circuit led by a judge Kavanaugh vetted while working in the Bush White House made little sense. That the identity of the panel ruling on the complaint was not made public until its order was released is sadly the type of opacity one has come to expect from the third branch.

Today’s decision underscores the need for the Supreme Court to adopt its own code of conduct or for Congress to write one if the justices cannot be bothered, and it demonstrates that the judicial misconduct rubric passed four decades ago – which fails to mention sexual misconduct, has no automatic change of circuit for complaints and forgives justices’ bad behavior in every instance – needs a serious rewrite.