LAP Calls for Sweeping Reform and Real Accountability Following Resignation of Joshua Kindred
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
For Immediate Release
Contact: Aliza Shatzman, 267-481-2095, aliza.shatzman@legalaccountabilityproject.org
LAP Calls for Sweeping Reform and Real Accountability Following Resignation of Joshua Kindred
While the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council did the right thing by calling for Alaska federal judge Joshua Kindred’s resignation, more sweeping reforms and real accountability are still desperately needed.
LAP was heartened to see the federal judiciary's existing accountability mechanisms work for law clerks who suffered appalling abuse from a federal district judge and had the courage to report it. But it is unsurprising that this type of abuse continues to occur in the federal judiciary, given that there are no guardrails to prevent it.
The Ninth Circuit was correct to call for Joshua Kindred to step down. He absolutely needed to.
Furthermore, the Judicial Council's detailed Order should give law clerks confidence that the system can work when judges and court administrators take harassment and misconduct allegations seriously, as they did here.
However, real accountability is still desperately needed, including extending federal anti-discrimination protections to more than 31,000 judiciary employees and taking the federal judicial complaint process out of the judiciary's chain of command. While the Ninth Circuit took these allegations seriously here, that’s not been the case in every instance, nor in every Circuit, when misconduct has occurred.
Judiciary employees deserve the right to safe workplaces free from discrimination, harassment, sexual assault, and retaliation. And these issues are too pervasive and too serious to leave accountability up to fellow judges, who have been historically unwilling to discipline their colleagues. Whether clerks get even the limited justice available to them, should not depend on the Circuit in which they clerk and the inclinations of particular judicial decision-makers at that time.
LAP hopes today's news will give every mistreated law clerk - current and former - the strength to come forward with the confidence that their complaints and their welfare will be taken seriously. We also urge Congress to act to address this problem.
The federal judiciary now faces a reckoning. LAP hears from clerks every day who tell us that allegations like this may be the tip of the iceberg. We encourage the federal judiciary, legal community, and lawmakers to take these issues seriously - and address them forcefully with the urgency they clearly deserve - in every court, state, and Circuit.