--- title: John Roberts Refers Judicial Complaints Against Kavanaugh description: Roberts transferred all judicial misconduct complaints against the newest Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to a Colorado circuit court canonical: https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-11T12:47:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:42:54.786Z article:section: Politics og:title: Supreme Court Chief Justice Refers Judicial Misconduct Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh to Colorado Circuit Court og:description: The complaints are only related to his confirmation hearings, per a DC Circuit Judge og:url: https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2bce28960f932d3/69893c23656a3f82f7bd5a93/gettyimages-1047770162.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP-COURT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Supreme Court Chief Justice Refers Judicial Misconduct Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh to Colorado Circuit Court twitter:description: The complaints are only related to his confirmation hearings, per a DC Circuit Judge twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2bce28960f932d3/69893c23656a3f82f7bd5a93/gettyimages-1047770162.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Supreme Court Chief Justice Refers Judicial Misconduct Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh to Colorado Circuit Court > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 11, 2018 12:47 PM UTC  Brett Kavanaugh is sworn-in as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court on Oct. 8, 2018 at the White House. Brett Kavanaugh is sworn-in as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court on Oct. 8, 2018 at the White House. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 11, 2018 12:47 PM UTC Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has referred all judicial misconduct complaints against new Justice [Brett Kavanaugh](http://time.com/5419736/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-first-question/) to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado to investigate, he said in a [letter](https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/intranet/home.nsf/Content/Announcement+-+Letter+from+Chief+Justice+Roberts+Transferring+Judicial+Misconduct+Complaints+Filed+Against+Former+Circuit+Judge+Brett+Kavanaugh+to+the+Tenth+Circuit/$FILE/Ltr%20to%20Chief%20Judge%20Tymkovich%20Oct%2010%202018.pdf) Wednesday. Roberts explained in the letter, addressed to Timothy Tymkovich, the Chief Judge for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, that the complaints had originally been sent to the D.C. Circuit Court, where Kavanaugh previously sat, but that he had received requests from a judge on that court to transfer it to another circuit. The judge who made that recommendation to Roberts, Karen Le Craft Henderson, said in a letter that she was making this suggestion “because of the exceptional circumstance related to the above referenced complaints and the concern that local disposition may weaken public confidence in the process.” Tymkovich, the judge who is now in charge of investigating the complaints, was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush and was on President Donald Trump’s [list of possible Supreme Court nominess](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/trump-supreme-court-pick-list-nominee-decision-679941), though Trump ultimately chose Kavanaugh. Henderson said in a press release [earlier this month](https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/intranet/home.nsf/Content/Announcement+-+Statement+of+Judge+Karen+LeCraft+Henderson+Regarding+Judicial+Misconduct+Complaints/$FILE/PressRelease20181006.pdf) that the misconduct claims were filed after Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, which began on Sept. 4\. Henderson said they all relate to the hearings, not to his conduct as a judge. Any member of the public can file a misconduct claim against a judge on the circuit where he sits, she noted. “The complaints do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge,” said Henderson. “The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.” The Senate narrowly [confirmed Kavanaugh](http://time.com/5417538/bett-kavanaugh-confirmed-senate-supreme-court/) to the court last Saturday, after a brutal confirmation fight that was extended after [three women came forward](http://time.com/5415027/christine-blasey-ford-testimony/) detailing sexual misconduct allegations against him that ultimately led to a supplemental FBI investigation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/"},"headline":"Supreme Court Chief Justice Refers Judicial Misconduct Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh to Colorado Circuit Court","datePublished":"2018-10-11T12:47:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:42:54.786Z","description":"The complaints are only related to his confirmation hearings, per a DC Circuit Judge","url":"https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/","keywords":["Supreme Court","onetime","Brett Kavanaugh"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2bce28960f932d3/69893c23656a3f82f7bd5a93/gettyimages-1047770162.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2bce28960f932d3/69893c23656a3f82f7bd5a93/gettyimages-1047770162.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-COURT","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-COURT","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5421689/supreme-court-john-roberts-refers-brett-kavanaugh-complaint/","name":"Supreme Court Chief Justice Refers Judicial Misconduct Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh to Colorado Circuit Court"}}]}] ```