Judges’ Clerk Hiring Boycott Prompts Review Request by Watchdog

An ethics watchdog group is asking the federal judiciary to review the hiring practices and statements of federal judges who have said they won’t hire law clerks from certain institutions, saying it raises concerns about potential bias in cases.

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics (CREW) in Washington sent a letter Wednesday to Director of the Administrative Office of the US Courts Judge Robert Conrad, asking that the judiciary’s policy-making body, the Judicial Conference, undertake such a review.

CREW President Noah Bookbinder pointed to clerk hiring boycotts by Judges James Ho of the Fifth Circuit and Elizabeth Branch of the Eleventh Circuit. Both said they won’t hire clerks from Stanford or Yale over the institutions’ handling of student protests at events featuring conservative speakers.

They also helped lead a recent letter in which 13 federal judges said they wouldn’t hire law clerks who attended Columbia University over the school’s approach to pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

“This pattern by a small but increasingly influential group of federal judges establishes a damaging and troubling precedent for the entire judiciary,” the letter reads. “By letting these inappropriate–and unethical–boycotts go unaddressed, the federal judiciary will be perceived as more and more ideologically divided, particularly when it comes to the hiring policies for one of the most coveted legal positions–judicial clerkships.”

Conrad, Ho, and Branch didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bookbinder said the potentially most troubling part of the boycotts “is the public’s perception of bias, both actual and apparent, which could have serious consequences for the entire justice system.” He said it could affect cases involving political protests, the topics underlying those protests, or any of the affected institutions or their graduates.

“The Judicial Conference must take action in order to preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary as a whole in the eyes of the public,” Bookbinder wrote.