Roberts refers judicial misconduct complaints against Kavanaugh to federal appeals court in Colorado

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Wednesday referred more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints filed recently against Brett M. Kavanaugh to a federal appeals court in Colorado.

The 15 complaints, related to statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings, were initially filed with the federal appeals court in Washington, where Kavanaugh served for the last 12 years before his confirmation Saturday to the Supreme Court.

A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had asked Roberts to refer the filings to another appeals court for review after determining that they should not be handled by judges who served with Kavanaugh on the appellate court.

In a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Roberts said he had selected the court in Colorado to “accept the transfer and to exercise the powers of a judicial council with respect to the identified complaints and any pending or new complaints relating to the same subject matter.”

[D.C. Circuit sent complaints about Kavanaugh’s testimony to Chief Justice Roberts]

The Denver-based appeals court is led by Chief Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, the former solicitor general of Colorado who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush. The 10th Circuit handled another recent judicial misconduct case from Washington involving the former chief judge of the District Court.

It is unclear what will come of the review by the 10th Circuit. The judiciary’s rules on misconduct do not apply to Supreme Court justices. The 10th Circuit will likely decide to dismiss the complaints as moot now that Kavanaugh has joined the high court.

“There is nothing that a judicial council could do at this point,” said Arthur D. Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and expert on the operation of federal courts.

The 10th Circuit will likely close the case “because it is no longer within their jurisdiction,” now that Kavanaugh has been elevated to the Supreme Court, he added.

Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson of the D.C. Circuit, whooriginally requested the transfer, said in a statement Saturday that “the complaints do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge. The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

When complaints were filed in late September and early October, Henderson dismissed some but concluded that others were substantive enough to refer to another judicial panel for investigation.

Roberts received the first transfer request on Sept. 20, according to his letter. He did not immediately move to refer the filings to another appeals court.

The complaints landed with Roberts because of his role as chief justice of the United States, not because Kavanaugh is now a member of the Supreme Court.

The allegations center on whether Kavanaugh was dishonest and lacked judicial temperament during his Senate testimony, according to people familiar with the matter.

Kavanaugh has vigorously denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when they were both in high school, in addition to accusations of sexual misconduct from two others.

Robert Barnes and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.