Short Circuit 223 | Clerks and Harassment

We discuss a couple legal immunities, one listeners will be familiar with and one that’s pretty unknown. The second is being addressed by our special guest, Aliza Shatzman. She is the co-founder of The Legal Accountability Project, a new nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that as many law clerks as possible have positive clerkship experiences while extending support and resources to those who do not. Aliza had a harrowing experience as a law clerk and found that the laws that apply to other government employees often don’t extend to those in the judicial branch. She also presents a recent case from the Fourth Circuit about a judicial branch employee who brought a number of claims to try and get around sovereign immunity—and actually succeeded on a few of them. Then Kirby Thomas West of IJ discusses a Fifth Circuit case with terrible facts, but a good outcome on the qualified immunity front.

Strickland v. U.S., https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/211346.P.pdf

Sims v. Griffin, https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/21/21-40457-CV0.pdf

Aliza on Ipse Dixit, https://shows.acast.com/ipse-dixit/episodes/aliza-shatzman-on-holding-judges-accountable

Untouchable Judges? What I’ve Learned About Harassment in the Judiciary, and What We Can do to Stop It, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4096245

Aliza’s Statement for the Record to Congress, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU03/20220317/114503/HHRG-117-JU03-20220317-SD005.pdf

Aliza Shatzman and the Legal Accountability Project, https://www.legalaccountabilityproject.org/

Kirby Thomas West, https://ij.org/staff/kirby-thomas-west/

Anthony Sanders, https://ij.org/staff/asanders/