Federal courts drop survey question about workplace misconduct, but not before judges’ staffers said they’d witnessed such problems

Leaders of the federal judiciary have had to backtrack after nearly three dozen law clerks and judge assistants affirmed in an informal survey that they had “witnessed wrongful conduct in the workplace.”

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said officials removed the question from a training registration form, sent last week to thousands of judiciary staffers who work for federal judges, but not before 34 of about 40 employees — nearly everyone who responded — indicated that they had observed some form of inappropriate behavior.