Just 2 Federal Law Clerks Filed Complaints Against Judges Last Year

Aliza Shatzman, LAP’s President and Founder, wrote for Above the Law on the broken system that leaves federal law clerks unable to report judicial misconduct. In 2025, just two clerks filed complaints under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, even though the judiciary’s own 2023 survey documented 106 instances of actionable mistreatment. Clerks rarely report not because misconduct is rare, but because the process is stacked against them: judges have life tenure, enjoy legal immunity, and clerks face real risks of retaliation. Most complaints are funneled into opaque internal procedures that provide little accountability, while the judiciary maintains a façade of self-policing. Misconduct is concealed, complaints discouraged, and abusive judges remain free to harm subordinates.

Shatzman writes, “Frankly, the public should not have any confidence in the judiciary as a fair and neutral arbiter of disputes, given the misconduct judges get away with. The federal judiciary is perpetrating a fraud upon the public: concealing misconduct, obfuscating about the scope of the problem, and flouting congressional authority. Judicial corruption is no different from other public corruption: the courts are just better at hiding it by controlling the levers of power, chilling law clerk complaints, and stymying Congress from asking questions.”