Georgia federal Judge Eleanor Ross received a “private reprimand” for having sex with a law enforcement officer in chambers over a two-year period.
” for having sex with a law enforcement officer in chambers over a two-year period, in earshot of clerks, and lying about it. The facts are salacious; theto conduct oversight, pass legislation, or cut judiciary funding to check a lawless co-equal branch.
Life-tenured judges hold positions of public trust, yet they’remisconduct to the chief district court judge, Ross initially lied about it. When confronted with the allegations, she denied them and blamed her law clerk, claiming the clerk made it up in retaliation for a poor performance review. She later recanted.
After a forensic investigation and interviews with six clerks, the 11Ross’ troubling lack of candor—something she disciplines witnesses for in her courtroom—is particularly threatening to judicial integrity and disqualifying for judicial service. Why should litigants and witnesses tell the truth if the judge cannot even tell the truth? Ross has been entrusted to judge others’ veracity, yet her own candor is in question.
: Ross apologized to clerks and agreed not to serve as chief judge or on a judicial council. The judiciary opted not to discipline Ross more harshly due to “exemplary” judicial service and her unlikeliness to engage in further misconduct. This exemplary service failed to account for her disturbingly poor judgment, risking blackmail and conflict-of-interest allegations, since theappears before her court; nor her lack of candor to the court.
It’s doubtful that Ross or any judge would exhibit such leniency from the bench when confronted with litigants’ similar misconduct.motion to disqualify Rosswith the U.S. Attorney’s Office, hundreds of cases were reopened, creating chaos and resource allocation issues, and threatening judicial integrity.publicly reported judicial misconduct matter this year, and likely won’t be the last. But if past is prologue, the courts won’t willingly implement reform. Judicial misconduct.
That’s because subordinates rarely blow the whistle on their powerful bosses, because they’re not legally protected against retaliation for reporting: The judicial branch’s more than 30,000 employees nationwide are inexplicablyannually in taxpayer dollars and are immune from suit, while committing misconduct—the type of corruption Democrats claim interest in rooting out throughout the federal government. But it’s easier to call out the other side’s misconduct than toThis problem is much bigger than Judge Ross.
Congress must check the lawless judiciary, while this issue is top of mind, through legislation, rigorousand extend federal anti-discrimination protections to judicial employees, so judges are no longer immune from suit, and employees can blow the whistle without fear of retaliation. The JAA also mandates annual climate surveys: Quantifying the scope of these problems is the first step toward crafting effective solutions.to meaningful benchmarks for reform, like conducting annual climate surveys, implementing meaningful guardrails and remedies, and hosting mandatory workplace training for judges and clerks, as conditions of federal funding.
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Director Robert Conrad will testify before an appropriations subcommittee this summer; members should question him about workplace conduct. Last year, they did not, even though workplace conduct featured prominently in his Like any insular organization—police unions, the military—the judiciary won’t raise its standards without outside oversight. Judges won’t always act ethically without legal constraints.
That’s why the laws that apply to the rest of us should apply to judges, and those who interpret our laws should be subject to those same laws.of the most hypocritical double standard: Judges hold others accountable for misconduct but are never held accountable themselves. Failing to act now sends a disturbing message: Accountability is optional for the
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