By Dahlia Lithwick, SLATE, February 13, 2020
I am honored to be invited to speak with you today on the issue of sexual harassment and misconduct in the federal judiciary. I am here in my individual capacity and my views do not represent those of any entity or publication.
I am here in several capacities; as a former 9th Circuit law clerk, and a journalist who has covered several stories of harassment and abuse both in the judiciary and in the law clerk pipeline that begins in law school. I have spoken on the topic at the Judicial College and at multiple federal circuit conferences. In every such presentation I am at pains to say that this is not a sex or abuse problem, but rather a power problem, and also that this is fundamentally a problem of closed systems that rely, often reasonably, on secrecy and discretion on the part of every member of a judicial chambers. But that same secrecy that protects the reputational and dignitary interests of the “weakest branch” of government can also become the kind of toxic and corrosive secrecy that allows abuse and harassment and bullying to go unaddressed. At its worst, this is the same secrecy that forces victims to report such conduct by way of journalism or committee hearing, which is emphatically not the best way to police misconduct. I want to say that again: Journalism and congressional oversight become necessary when the judiciary fails to police itself. They are not the solution to this problem, but rather a symptom.
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