DrWebFederal judges are above the law in the workplace: How a “Glassdoor for Judges” will help – GovTrack.us
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Federal judges are above the law in the workplace: How a “Glassdoor for Judges” will help
Sept. 16, 2025 · by Aliza Shatzman
This guest post is from Aliza Shatzman, who in her first job after law school working for a judge learned the reality of judges’ conduct behind closed doors. She launched a transparency and accountability platform for recent law school graduates to rate their bosses and also advocates for policy reform.
While judges, regardless of party, rule for democracy, behind the bench, judges’ conduct is lawless and ungoverned. Judges regularly engage in misconduct that would be illegal — except that judges are exempt from all federal anti-discrimination laws.
Disturbingly, 1,700 federal judges who rule on issues of national significance and determine litigants’ lives, livelihoods, and liberty, are themselves above the laws they interpret. And more than 30,000 judicial branch employees — including judicial law clerks, permanent court staff, and federal public defenders — lack workplace protections, due to a legal loophole creating judicial immunity.
I learned the implications of this firsthand when, while serving as a judicial law clerk six years ago, I was harassed and discriminated against, fired, and retaliated against by the judge I worked for. When I tried to hold him accountable for attempting to destroy my career and reputation, I discovered law clerks like me are exempt from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all federal anti-discrimination laws. I could not sue my harasser and seek redress. I filed a complaint, but I did not realize the judge’s friends decided whether to discipline him, since judges “self-police” their colleagues (much like Congress).
Judicial clerkships are prestigious first legal jobs where recent law graduates spend a year or two working closely with and learning from judges — researching, writing, going to court, and assisting with judicial decision-making. Clerks gain valuable insight into judges’ thinking, a coveted credential and, if they’re lucky, a lifelong mentor. But law schools almost never discuss potential downsides of clerking — the small, isolated, hierarchical work environment that’s ripe for abuse; lack of workplace protections and oversight; enormous power disparity between judge and clerk; and judges’ far-reaching power over clerks’ careers. Young attorneys are blinded to the hazards inherent in these unregulated work environments.
Because law schools are obsessed with placing as many students as possible into prestigious clerkships, they’re loath to collect and disseminate negative information about judges, necessitating a third-party, independent platform to collect information from graduates and disseminate it to students.
In 2022 I testified in support of the Judiciary Accountability Act (JAA), which would finally extend anti-discrimination and whistleblower protections to the judiciary — protections extended to the other two branches of governmentin 1995.
Soon after, I launched The Legal Accountability Project (LAP), a court accountability and clerkship transparency nonprofit that’s leading the charge against harassment and workplace abuse in the courts.
A key aspect of LAP’s work is its award-winning, nationwide Clerkships Database (basically, “Glassdoor for Judges“), where clerks review their powerful, unaccountable bosses as managers — anonymously if they choose, to ensure candid responses. LAP’s Database — the largest independent repository of clerkship information in the U.S. — already contains nearly 2,000 candid reviews about approximately 1,200 federal and state judges, including information from every state, federal circuit, and most U.S. District Courts. It’s the only way for applicants to identify great bosses to apply to, and bad managers — or downright abusive judges — to avoid. LAP created accountability through transparency: there’s nothing imperious judges hate more than negative feedback they cannot see, dispute, or silence clerks from sharing through threats of retaliation.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
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