By Manny Marotta, FTC law clerk

NPR’s Carrie Johnson has been working for the better part of a year on an investigation into workplace harassment and its repercussions in the federal judiciary, with the first installment being published Tuesday.

According to Johnson, a tipline NPR set up last year received accounts from judiciary employees of “more than two dozen judges […] appointed by Democratic & Republican presidents [alike]” engaging in “abusive or hostile conduct and bullying.” That’s as astounding as it is upsetting.

As we’ve long detailed and sought to fix, employees of the federal judiciary are exempt from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, among other employment laws, meaning that those with valid claims of harassment against judges often find themselves without legal recourse.

Further, judges who retaliate against employees who report them for harassment often go unpunished. Judiciary employees are essentially at-will, meaning that they can be terminated at any time, for any reason, with no explanation.

This makes it difficult to hold problematic judges accountable for their actions. While a complaints system exists for employees to report judges, the people who review the complaints are often other judges who work in the same building or circuit, who for obvious reasons are not neutral arbiters.

Per Johnson’s reporting and our own research, we know that many victims of misconduct in the judiciary feel unheard or are retaliated against. What makes the situation even worse, as Johnson points out, is the extent to which judges hold power over their employees’ careers. In other words, retaliation could mean withholding a recommendation or otherwise diminishing a clerk’s or a judicial assistant’s or a probation officer’s chance of future employment. Consequently, many employees hesitate to report misconduct for fear of damaging their professional reputations.

Addressing workplace harassment within the judiciary requires urgent reform, and we look forward to Johnson’s second installment, planned for release on March 1.