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What's Next for Judge Eleanor Ross? A 2009 Impeachment May Provide Some Clues

A guest post from Professor Arthur Hellman

Josh Blackman | 5.29.2026 8:35 PM

I invited Professor Arthur Hellman, an emeritus professor at the University of Pittsburgh, to write a guest post on what should come next for Judge Ross. Professor Hellman is a leading expert on judicial ethics, and has testified before Congress on this important topic before.

District Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia has now been "outed" as the "Subject Judge" of the judicial misconduct order issued by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States (JC&D Committee) on May 22. The Committee agreed with the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit that three actions by Judge Ross constituted misconduct under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 (JCDA). The Committee also agreed that the remedial measures ordered by the Judicial Council, the strongest of which was a private reprimand, were appropriate.

These remedial measures have understandably been sharply criticized as woefully inadequate, given the seriousness of two of the findings of misconduct. It is still possible that the Judicial Council or the JC&D Committee could reverse course, but on the assumption that that will not happen, I agree with Josh Blackman that the next step is consideration of the constitutional process of impeachment.

As it happens, one of the findings of misconduct by Judge Ross corresponds closely to conduct that was one basis for impeaching District Judge Samuel B. Kent in 2009. Specifically, the JC&D Committee (p. 5)........

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