By Emma Donahue, FTC law clerk

Judicial misconduct cases have been dominating the news lately, with one of the most notable concerning N.D. Georgia Judge Eleanor Ross’ sexual misconduct in chambers.

As a result, Fix the Court has been reviewing judicial misconduct complaints since 2015 that the chief judge referred to a special committee for further investigation.

We found it odd that the names of the judges on the special committee weren’t identified, so we wanted to check if that was common.

As background, the U.S. Courts’ S-22 table reports complaints filed and actions taken under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act each fiscal year. 

It is highly rare for a complaint to reach the special committee phase, as most are dismissed by the chief judge without any further review. For example, 1,857 complaints were initiated in FY24-25, and only three were referred to a special committee. That’s not wholly surprising given that 95-99 percent of complaints are frivolous or don’t meet the criteria for a complaint (i.e., you can’t file a complaint about losing a case — if you’re upset, you appeal — but hundreds of people do each year).

But even among the complaints referred to a special committee, few result in discipline beyond private or public reprimand, and many are dismissed or concluded after the special committee investigation.

Sometimes this is because intervening causes make it unnecessary to continue review (like the subject judge resigning), and sometimes the judicial council deems that the subject judge voluntarily took appropriate corrective action. 

Regarding the final order identifying the judges on the special committee, we found that the Judge Ross complaint was the first one since 2021 where the special committee members were not named.

Since 2015, 16 out of the 26 final orders reviewed by FTC identified the judges on the special committee, with eight of the 10 that did not coming from the Fifth Circuit.

We think that the complaint process as a whole would benefit from more transparency by mandating the routine disclosure of special committee members. 

Our research about these complaints can be found here.