In August, a panel of federal judges in Washington dismissed a misconduct complaint against Judge Edith Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The decision was announced on Wednesday—not by the court, but by the group that filed the complaint.
Judicial-misconduct proceedings largely take place in secret. The federal judiciary’s rules require that most information about misconduct proceedings stay confidential. The bulk of complaints are dismissed early on, which under the rules usually means that a judge’s name and details about the complaint are never revealed.
