H.R. 10390: Judicial Conduct and Disability Reform Act of 2026

This bill would change how complaints about federal judges are handled under the judicial misconduct and disability process in chapter 16 of title 28.

What the bill would do

• Create a new rule for “suspension orders.” If a judicial council or the Judicial Conference orders that no new cases be assigned to a judge, the order would have to be reviewed within one year.
• After one year, the council or Judicial Conference would have to either:
  • end the suspension and close the matter,
  • renew the suspension for up to one more year if needed, or
  • ask the judge to retire, even if normal age or service requirements are not met in some cases.
• If the judge does not voluntarily retire within 30 days of that request, the matter would have to be sent to the Judicial Conference for further handling.
• A suspension order, including renewals, could not last more than two years total.
• If a suspension ends, the judicial council would have to issue a written order describing any corrective steps the judge took while the suspension was pending.

Transfers of complaints

• The bill would let a chief judge or judicial council ask the Chief Justice to move a misconduct or disability complaint to another circuit’s judicial council.
• In some situations, the transfer would be mandatory to request—for example, if moving the case would help carry out the purposes of the misconduct process, such as preserving public confidence in the courts and protecting judges’ independence.
• The bill specifically says that if a complaint is filed against a federal appeals court judge and the chief judge does not dismiss or conclude the matter early, the chief judge must ask the Chief Justice to transfer the case to another circuit.
• The Chief Justice could approve the transfer or choose the receiving circuit’s judicial council.

Notification to Congress

• The bill would require judicial councils to promptly send written notice to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees when they take certain actions under this process.
• If a council asks a judge to retire, it would also have to notify those committees.

Review of decisions

• The bill would revise the review process for decisions made under this chapter.
• It would allow a complainant or judge to ask the Judicial Conference to review a judicial council’s action.
• For suspension orders lasting more than one year in total, the judge could seek review in a court of appeals.
• That court review would be limited to constitutional questions.
• The venue for that review would be a circuit chosen by the Chief Justice that is neither the judge’s own circuit nor the circuit that issued the suspension order.
• The bill would also allow Supreme Court review through certiorari or certification.
• Most other orders and decisions in this process would remain final and generally not subject to further judicial review.

Recusal standard

• The bill would add an express rule that a judge must step aside from proceedings under this chapter if the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

Effective date

• The changes would apply to complaints filed or identified after enactment, and to any suspension order already in effect on the date the bill becomes law.

Relevant Companies

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