Nonprofits Back Ex-Defender's High Court Sex Bias Petition

The Legal Accountability Project (LAP) was proud to sign onto an amicus brief with the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) in support of Caryn Devins Strickland’s Supreme Court cert petition. Strickland sued the federal judiciary for sex discrimination, raising novel constitutional claims, because the federal judiciary and its more than 30,000 employees, including judicial law clerks and federal public defenders, are exempt from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and all federal anti-discrimination, civil rights, and labor laws. LAP and GAWL argue that “a ruling adverse to the petitioner would permit sexual harassment and discrimination to remain relatively unchecked in the federal judiciary, not only harming all employees of the federal judiciary, but severely impacting all those with ties to the legal profession who may someday pursue such employment.” Both LAP and GAWL have an interest in protecting vulnerable judiciary employees, especially women, from workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Today’s judicial law clerks are tomorrow’s lawyers, and allowing harassment to go unchecked drives women lawyers from the legal profession.