(NewsNation) — Millions of Americans who experience workplace harassment have access to protections, whether they are employed by private companies, nonprofit groups or even Congress, but about 30,000 people who work for the federal judiciary are exempt from protections of that civils rights law.
“The history of that distinction is separation of powers and the concerns for judicial independence and worrying that Congress would over-regulate how the judiciary conducts its business,” Jeremy Fogel, who served as a state and federal judge for 37 years, told NPR.
In 2017, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed a working group after the #MeToo spread to the federal courts. He also created the Office of Judicial Integrity to monitor workplace issues and serve as a source for what he called confidential guidance and counseling.
Today, that office has just three employees.
“The Judiciary has long-standing, enforceable policies protecting its employees against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation consistent with federal employment discrimination statutes applicable in the executive and legislative branches,” Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said.
The judiciary publishes annual reports about complaints against judges and for the past few years, the number of sexual harassment complaints has gone between zero and six.
A rare glimpse of this process emerged last month when the courts resolved a two-year-old complaint from a law clerk.
In the complaint, an unnamed federal judge agreed to receive counseling and watch training videos after a clerk reported a hostile workplace environment.
A subsequent investigation by the judiciary uncovered concerns about the judge being “overly harsh” to other clerks as well.
The toughest sanction against a federal judge is impeachment. But it’s been 14 years since a judge was impeached and convicted for corruption and false statements.