Nonprofit files misconduct complaint against federal judge : NPR

A nonprofit group that advocates for law clerks has taken the rare step of filing a misconduct complaint against a federal appeals court judge, alleging she bullies and mistreats law clerks and that the courts’ process for fielding such claims is broken.

The complaint from the Legal Accountability Project against Judge Sarah Merriam of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit states that it is based on conversations with multiple former law clerks who fear retaliation if they come forward themselves.

“She is a bully, in all the ways one might bully their employees: yelling, berating clerks, sending all-caps unhinged emails,” said Aliza Shatzman, president and founder of the Legal Accountability Project.

The Legal Accountability Project complaint, which has not been previously reported, was filed earlier this month and reviewed by NPR. The group says it marks the second publicly known complaint in four years about Merriam. Such complaints are not usually made public. Instead, they tend to be handled internally, by courts that police themselves, in part to protect the judiciary’s independence and balance of power.

In a nearly year-long investigation, NPR found a culture of fear about reporting judges and concluded that the courts’ internal system often fails to result in meaningful change.

In December 2023, an internal investigation into an unnamed judge on the Second Circuit by the court’s judicial council found evidence that judge had an “overly harsh” management style. The investigation closed after that judge agreed to watch workplace conduct videos and receive counseling about how to manage staff in their chambers.

The investigation never named the judge, but a report from legal commentator David Lat in 2024 alleged that the judge in question was Merriam. The findings of that initial investigation resemble examples cited in the recent complaint against Merriam from the Legal Accountability Project.

Shatzman, from the Legal Accountability Project, said she’s heard from clerks in 2024 and 2025 who spoke about the alleged abuses by Merriam, including from an unnamed clerk who quit this year after just one month on the job. Four others withdrew from offers to work for the judge, apparently after learning about the work environment, the nonprofit group said.

An email to multiple officials at the Second Circuit appeals court did not receive an answer as of press time. A message left for Judge Merriam also went unanswered. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declined comment. Court officials typically decline to comment on misconduct complaints while they are pending.

Merriam is a former federal public defender and longtime magistrate judge in Connecticut. President Joe Biden nominated her to a lifetime tenured district court judgeship, where she was confirmed in October 2021. He then promoted her to the federal appeals court, to which she was confirmed in September 2022.

Concerns about Merriam represent the latest flash point in a long-running debate about the power imbalance between federal judges and the often young clerks who work for them. People who work for the courts don’t enjoy the same kinds of job protections that most other American workers do.

To resolve the earlier complaint, the unnamed judge agreed that the workplace relations coordinator for the Second Circuit would “check in” with clerks, to make sure they had been treated with respect and were free from abusive conduct.

But the recent complaint from the Legal Accountability Project suggests that the concerns of clerks on the Second Circuit persist.

The filing of the complaint could prompt court officials in the Second Circuit to conduct interviews with people who have worked for the judge, and to seek answers from the judge herself.