I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1811
To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide an Inspector General
for the judicial branch, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH3, 2025
Ms. S
TANSBURY(for herself, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. CLEAVER,
Ms. T
LAIB, Ms. NORTON, Mr. MAGAZINER, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia,
Mrs. R
AMIREZ, and Ms. MCCOLLUM) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide an Inspec-
tor General for the judicial branch, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Judicial Ethics En-4
forcement Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR THE JUDICIAL BRANCH. 6
(a) E
STABLISHMENT AND DUTIES.—Part III of title 7
28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 8
the following: 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 1811 IH
‘‘CHAPTER 60—INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR 1
THE JUDICIAL BRANCH 2
‘‘Sec.
‘‘1021. Establishment.
‘‘1022. Appointment, term, and removal of Inspector General.
‘‘1023. Duties.
‘‘1024. Powers.
‘‘1025. Reports.
‘‘1026. Whistleblower protection.
‘‘§ 1021. Establishment 3
‘‘There is established for the judicial branch of the 4
Government the Office of Inspector General for the Judi-5
cial Branch (in this chapter referred to as the ‘Office’). 6
‘‘§ 1022. Appointment, term, and removal of Inspector 7
General 8
‘‘(a) A
PPOINTMENT.—The head of the Office shall be 9
the Inspector General, who shall be appointed by the Chief 10
Justice of the United States after consultation with the 11
majority and minority leaders of the Senate and the 12
Speaker and minority leader of the House of Representa-13
tives. 14
‘‘(b) T
ERM.—The Inspector General shall serve for 15
a term of 4 years and may be reappointed by the Chief 16
Justice of the United States for any number of additional 17
terms. 18
‘‘(c) R
EMOVAL.—The Inspector General may be re-19
moved from office by the Chief Justice of the United 20
States. The Chief Justice shall communicate the reasons 21
for any such removal to both Houses of Congress. 22
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 1811 IH
‘‘§ 1023. Duties 1
‘‘With respect to the judicial branch, the Office 2
shall— 3
‘‘(1) conduct investigations of alleged mis-4
conduct in the judicial branch (other than the 5
United States Supreme Court) under chapter 16 6
that may require oversight or other action within the 7
judicial branch or by Congress; 8
‘‘(2) conduct investigations of alleged violations 9
of the Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme 10
Court of the United States or any other alleged mis-11
conduct in the United States Supreme Court that 12
may require oversight or other action within the ju-13
dicial branch or by Congress; 14
‘‘(3) conduct and supervise audits and inves-15
tigations; 16
‘‘(4) prevent and detect waste, fraud, and 17
abuse; and 18
‘‘(5) recommend changes in laws or regulations 19
governing the judicial branch. 20
‘‘§ 1024. Powers 21
‘‘(a) P
OWERS.—In carrying out the duties of the Of-22
fice, the Inspector General shall have the power to— 23
‘‘(1) make investigations and reports; 24
‘‘(2) obtain information or assistance from any 25
Federal, State, or local governmental agency, or 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 1811 IH
other entity, or unit thereof, including all informa-1
tion kept in the course of business by the Judicial 2
Conference of the United States, the judicial coun-3
cils of circuits, the Administrative Office of the 4
United States Courts, and the United States Sen-5
tencing Commission; 6
‘‘(3) require, by subpoena or otherwise, the at-7
tendance and testimony of such witnesses, and the 8
production of such books, records, correspondence, 9
memoranda, papers, and documents, which sub-10
poena, in the case of contumacy or refusal to obey, 11
shall be enforceable by civil action; 12
‘‘(4) administer to or take from any person an 13
oath, affirmation, or affidavit; 14
‘‘(5) employ such officers and employees, sub-15
ject to the provisions of title 5, governing appoint-16
ments in the competitive service, and the provisions 17
of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of 18
such title relating to classification and General 19
Schedule pay rates; 20
‘‘(6) obtain services as authorized by section 21
3109 of title 5 at daily rates not to exceed the equiv-22
alent rate for a position at level IV of the Executive 23
Schedule under section 5315 of such title; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 1811 IH
‘‘(7) the extent and in such amounts as may be 1
provided in advance by appropriations Acts, to enter 2
into contracts and other arrangements for audits, 3
studies, analyses, and other services with public 4
agencies and with private persons, and to make such 5
payments as may be necessary to carry out the du-6
ties of the Office. 7
‘‘(b) C
HAPTER16 MATTERS.—The Inspector General 8
shall not commence an investigation under section 9
1023(1) until the denial of a petition for review by the 10
judicial council of the circuit under section 352(c) of this 11
title or upon referral or certification to the Judicial Con-12
ference of the United States of any matter under section 13
354(b) of this title. 14
‘‘(c) L
IMITATION.—The Inspector General shall not 15
have the authority to— 16
‘‘(1) investigate or review any matter that is di-17
rectly related to the merits of a decision or proce-18
dural ruling by any judge, justice, or court; or 19
‘‘(2) punish or discipline any judge, justice, or 20
court. 21
‘‘§ 1025. Reports 22
‘‘(a) W
HENTOBEMADE.—The Inspector General 23
shall— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 1811 IH
‘‘(1) make an annual report to the Chief Jus-1
tice and to Congress relating to the activities of the 2
Office; and 3
‘‘(2) make prompt reports to the Chief Justice 4
and to Congress on matters that may require action 5
by the Chief Justice or Congress. 6
‘‘(b) S
ENSITIVEMATTER.—If a report contains sen-7
sitive matter, the Inspector General may so indicate and 8
Congress may receive that report in closed session. 9
‘‘(c) D
UTYTOINFORMATTORNEYGENERAL.—In 10
carrying out the duties of the Office, the Inspector General 11
shall report expeditiously to the Attorney General when-12
ever the Inspector General has reasonable grounds to be-13
lieve there has been a violation of Federal criminal law. 14
‘‘§ 1026. Whistleblower protection 15
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—No officer, employee, agent, con-16
tractor, or subcontractor in the judicial branch may dis-17
charge, demote, threaten, suspend, harass, or in any other 18
manner discriminate against an employee in the terms and 19
conditions of employment because of any lawful act done 20
by the employee to provide information, cause information 21
to be provided, or otherwise assist in an investigation re-22
garding any possible violation of Federal law or regulation, 23
or misconduct, by a judge, justice, or any other employee 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•HR 1811 IH
in the judicial branch, which may assist the Inspector Gen-1
eral in the performance of duties under this chapter. 2
‘‘(b) C
IVILACTION.—An employee injured by a viola-3
tion of subsection (a) may, in a civil action, obtain appro-4
priate relief.’’. 5
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 6
The table of chapters for part III of title 28, United States 7
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘60. Inspector General for the judicial branch ...................................... 1021’’.
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:14 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1811.IH H1811
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB