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People who work for the federal court system don't have the same kinds of job protections that most other Americans do. A nearly year-long NPR investigation has found problems with the way the courts police sexual harassment and bullying and a pervasive culture of fear about blowing the whistle. A warning - this piece contains a description of sexual assault. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson reports.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: In 2020, as the corona virus pandemic began to shut things down, a recent law school graduate started a new job all the way across the country in Alaska. She accepted a coveted post as a law clerk for a federal judge.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) It's kind of like a unicorn. It's a position that follows you for the rest of your life. It's on the top of your resume. It's - you know, people pay attention to it, especially a federal court clerkship.
JOHNSON: The clerk hoped this job would jumpstart her career. She didn't know anyone else there, only the judge.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) The judge was the HR department. The judge was my boss. The judge was a colleague. The judge was everything. He had all the power.
JOHNSON: He started testing her boundaries early on.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) It started immediately - the inappropriate conversations. There was a lot of talk, you know, about the judge's personal relationships, about sexual relationships.
JOHNSON: She says she thought it was part of her job to listen to the judge and help him with anything. He was going through a divorce, and he began to text her constantly, to the point where her phone felt like an electric leash.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) You know, I never had respite from being just a few text messages away from him. It was constant. It was during work. It was after work. It was all the time.
JOHNSON: That pressure built. In the summer of 2022, things got worse.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) That's when he told me he'd been communicating with this prosecutor that was appearing before him. And she had been sending nude photos. And that was the breaking point for me, where I decided I needed to leave.
JOHNSON: She stayed in Alaska, but she got a new job as a federal prosecutor, and this, she hoped, would put an end to the ordeal. As it turned out, that was wrong.
(SOUNDBITE OF IAN PAUL LIVINGSTONE'S "RIPPLE IN TIME")
JOHNSON: The voice you've been hearing is not her real voice, although they are her words verbatim. We're using a voice actor because she was too afraid to talk. You'll understand why in a moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF IAN PAUL LIVINGSTONE'S "RIPPLE IN TIME")
JOHNSON: About a week after she left the judge's chamber, she ran into him at a party. I'm going to tell the next part of the story entirely from allegations in the court papers. That's in part because retelling it to me was too painful. At the party, he tried to get her to sit next to him on the couch. Eventually, she left, but she got a text from him saying he needed to talk to her.
It was cold that night, so the judge suggested they chat inside his apartment. Once inside, the judge insisted she come to the bedroom. At first, she sat on the corner of the bed, but he wanted her to lay down. Then she told investigators he grabbed her breast. She tried to pull his arm off, but he was really strong. I just remember thinking, like, there's nothing I can do about this, she told the investigators. This is about to happen. Like, I always felt like this thing he could not touch. And finally, he felt like he could touch.
(SOUNDBITE OF IAN PAUL LIVINGSTONE'S "RIPPLE IN TIME")
JOHNSON: A judge's control over the future of a young lawyer is real and lasting. With only a phone call, a judge can open doors to a lucrative job at a law firm or shut them permanently. And there's no one really policing what happens inside a judge's chambers beside the judge themselves. Judicial independence and protecting the balance of power give judges a tremendous amount of sway over workplace rules.
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JOHNSON: For nearly a year, I interviewed 42 people - current and former workers within the federal court system - about their experience. They're men and women who work for more than two dozen judges appointed by presidents from both major political parties. I heard from people whose self-confidence was shattered by judges who screamed so loudly others could hear from the hallways, people who were fired after a week or two on the job for no clear reason. Some describe sexual harassment, like in the case of the Alaska clerk. Many more shared episodes of bullying, and others said they faced discrimination because they had a disability or were pregnant.
And things can get pretty tough for clerks who speak out. When the Alaska clerk reported the assault, she told a colleague who had been assigned to mentor her. But that mentor said she also had been coerced.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) When I reported to my mentor, she was also the person that had been sending him nude photos and immediately told him that I reported the sexual assault.
JOHNSON: Her mentor later said the judge's power and authority contributed to the pressure she felt, and he told her he would have sway over a job she wanted. The former clerk heard from friends the judge was furious. And when she ran into him, he warned her to keep her head down and shut up.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) The actual sexual assault was awful. Don't - I mean, it was completely awful. And you know, I've since sought therapy for that and help. But what happened next was almost worse.
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JOHNSON: The court system ultimately launched an investigation into the judge Joshua Kindred. What followed were multiple rounds of interviews with investigators who cross-examined her and stress-tested her credibility. The court investigation took more than a year. All the while, two other young women clerks in the judge's chambers continued to work by his side. Then, in July...
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REBECCA PALSHA: Now with the 9th Circuit's report released just hours ago, we learned back in May that the judge was told he could face impeachment if he did not resign for what the counsel concluded was sexual misconduct with a clerk.
JOHNSON: Judge Joshua Kindred told investigators that the sexual experience was consensual and that he had no, quote, "sinister intent." The special committee found the judge deliberately lied when he said nothing sexual had happened between them. But the committee did not reach a conclusion about whether the judge sexually assaulted the former clerk, finding there was enough evidence to say the judge committed misconduct without even resolving that issue. Judge Kindred did not respond to NPR's attempts to reach him for comment. The clerk said she felt let down by the process.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As court clerk) I was sexually assaulted. I'm not sure why that was a fact in dispute - perhaps not a fact in dispute, but not a conclusion drawn by the report. And I've never wavered on that fact that that was immediately what I reported to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
(SOUNDBITE OF PIP HEYWOOD'S "DRIFTS")
JOHNSON: The federal judiciary points to the departure of the Alaska judge as a demonstration the system works. The Administrative Office of the Courts, which sets policy from Washington, says they've taken extensive steps to protect clerks and other workers since the Me Too movement swept the country in 2017. And they say they hold judges to the highest standards.
But our investigation uncovered problems with the reporting system in the judicial branch. For one, there's a widespread culture of fear, and there's a good reason for that. Jamie Baker is a former judge who also worked in the White House and the military.
JAMIE BAKER: The location where I found the power differential the most distinct was when I was serving as a judge with law clerks. And I think that's something worth noting.
JOHNSON: Not only is the relationship intense, it often comes with a huge age gap. Gabe Roth is executive director of Fix the Court. He's pushing the federal courts to be more accountable.
GABE ROTH: Judges are life tenured. The average age of federal judges right now is about 65 or 68. Law clerks, they are roughly, let's say, you know, 26 to 30.
JOHNSON: Another person pushing for change is Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat from California.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NORMA TORRES: Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to see all of you here.
JOHNSON: Last fall, she convened a group of experts on the Hill to try to draw attention to the problem.
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TORRES: I don't need to be a lawyer to know that people in power with no oversight get to sweep people and problems under the rug.
JOHNSON: Torres says the courts operate in a patchwork, so no one's in charge of overseeing all the systems that employees use to report misconduct. She's working alongside Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson.
TORRES: Good morning. Pleasure to see you, sir.
HANK JOHNSON: Great to see you also. Thank you all for being here. You ready to go? OK.
JOHNSON: Johnson's walking us through the Rayburn House Office Building...
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JOHNSON: ...And into the Capitol to introduce the Judiciary Accountability Act. His bill would make clear the same legal protections for workers in the private sector and the executive branch also apply to the 30,000 people who work for the federal courts.
JOHNSON: This is just one small step but a very important step to bring about some accountability.
JOHNSON: The legislation did not get a hearing before Congress left town last year. The people who work for federal judges, for probation departments, for public defenders - they can't go to the executive branch for help. And it's not clear they can sue in courts either. Aliza Shatzman runs The Legal Accountability Project.
ALIZA SHATZMAN: The federal judiciary is outrageously exempt from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That means that if you are a law clerk and you are sexually harassed, fired, retaliated against by a federal judge, you have no legal recourse.
JOHNSON: The federal courts say they've done a lot to make sure workers are treated with dignity and respect. But I've been told clerks who run into trouble on the job still face tremendous pressure to remain silent.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIVERSAL PRODUCTION MUSIC'S "HEALING")
JOHNSON: A bad word from a judge can derail a clerk's career, while judges serve for life. I heard it again and again. Those judges who behave badly, often it's an open secret inside the courthouse, but nobody does anything about it. Many clerks graduated from top law schools and pride themselves on their smarts and resilience only to break down in tears when they talk about hostile treatment they suffered working for federal judges. The judiciary protects its own, one clerk told me. Another said, I can handle a tough boss. I can't handle an abusive boss. I just wish more people would talk about it.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIVERSAL PRODUCTION MUSIC'S "HEALING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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