A view of the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan, N.Y., the place the Second Circuit Court docket of Appeals is seated, from 2020.
Mark Lennihan/AP
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Mark Lennihan/AP
A nonprofit group that advocates for legislation clerks has taken the uncommon step of submitting a misconduct grievance towards a federal appeals courtroom choose, alleging she bullies and mistreats legislation clerks and that the courts’ course of for fielding such claims is damaged.
The grievance from the Authorized Accountability Venture towards Choose Sarah Merriam of the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Second Circuit states that it’s primarily based on conversations with a number of former legislation clerks who worry retaliation if they arrive ahead themselves.
“She is a bully, in all of the methods one may bully their staff: yelling, berating clerks, sending all-caps unhinged emails,” mentioned Aliza Shatzman, president and founding father of the Authorized Accountability Venture.
The Authorized Accountability Venture grievance, which has not been beforehand reported, was filed earlier this month and reviewed by NPR. The group says it marks the second publicly recognized grievance in 4 years about Merriam. Such complaints are usually not often made public. As a substitute, they are typically dealt with internally, by courts that police themselves, partially to guard the judiciary’s independence and steadiness of energy.
In a virtually year-long investigation, NPR discovered a tradition of worry about reporting judges and concluded that the courts’ inner system usually fails to lead to significant change.
In December 2023, an inner investigation into an unnamed choose on the Second Circuit by the courtroom’s judicial council discovered proof that choose had an “overly harsh” administration type. The investigation closed after that choose agreed to observe office conduct movies and obtain counseling about handle employees of their chambers.
The investigation by no means named the choose, however a report from authorized commentator David Lat in 2024 alleged that the choose in query was Merriam. The findings of that preliminary investigation resemble examples cited within the latest grievance towards Merriam from the Authorized Accountability Venture.
Shatzman, from the Authorized Accountability Venture, mentioned she’s heard from clerks in 2024 and 2025 who spoke in regards to the alleged abuses by Merriam, together with from an unnamed clerk who give up this yr after only one month on the job. 4 others withdrew from provides to work for the choose, apparently after studying in regards to the work atmosphere, the nonprofit group mentioned.
An e-mail to a number of officers on the Second Circuit appeals courtroom didn’t obtain a solution as of press time. A message left for Choose Merriam additionally went unanswered. A spokesman for the Administrative Workplace of the U.S. Courts declined remark. Court docket officers usually decline to touch upon misconduct complaints whereas they’re pending.
Merriam is a former federal public defender and longtime Justice of the Peace choose in Connecticut. President Joe Biden nominated her to a lifetime tenured district courtroom judgeship, the place she was confirmed in October 2021. He then promoted her to the federal appeals courtroom, to which she was confirmed in September 2022.
Issues about Merriam characterize the newest flash level in a long-running debate in regards to the energy imbalance between federal judges and the customarily younger clerks who work for them. Individuals who work for the courts do not take pleasure in the identical sorts of job protections that the majority different American employees do.
To resolve the sooner grievance, the unnamed choose agreed that the office relations coordinator for the Second Circuit would “test in” with clerks, to verify that they had been handled with respect and had been free from abusive conduct.
However the latest grievance from the Authorized Accountability Venture means that the considerations of clerks on the Second Circuit persist.
The submitting of the grievance might immediate courtroom officers within the Second Circuit to conduct interviews with individuals who have labored for the choose, and to hunt solutions from the choose herself.
