In wake of Kindred resignation, Murkowski introduces federal judiciary workplace protections bill

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation that would reform federal judiciary employees’ rights and protections against workplace misconduct.

The move comes days after Murkowski said she supported an effort to impeach former Alaska federal Judge Joshua Kindred.

In 2019, Murkowski and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan recommended Kindred be nominated for one of Alaska’s federal judgeships. He was appointed to the bench by then-President Donald Trump and served for four years before he resigned in July after a scathing 9th Circuit Judicial Council investigation found he’d conducted a sexualized relationship with a law clerk working for him, fostered a hostile workplace and lied about it to investigators. In the days after Kindred’s resignation, Democratic lawmakers said the former judge’s conduct showed the 30,000 federal judiciary employees needed more legal protections, Reuters reported at the time.

The Judicial Conference of the United States has recommended Kindred for impeachment in the House, but it’s unclear whether the process will move forward.

Murkowski and Mazie Hironi, a Hawaii Democrat, reintroduced the Judicial Accountability Act on Wednesday. The bill was first introduced in 2021.

The act “expands federal laws that prohibit workplace harassment and discrimination to employees of the judiciary, putting them on par with executive branch, congressional, and private sector employees who have long-had these protections,” Murkowski said in a prepared statement.

The statement from Murkowski’s office said that the act is necessary because “foundational federal statutes — such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — generally do not apply to the federal judiciary, making it one of the only employers in the entire country — public or private — whose employees are not protected by federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination and retaliation.”

Murkowski did not respond to a question about whether Kindred directly inspired the legislation.