"On December 18, 2025, The Legal Accountability Project (LAP) took a meaningful step toward real judicial accountability, filing our first Judicial Conduct and Disability (JC&D) Act complaint against Second Circuit Judge Sarah Merriam. Disturbingly, this is the second misconduct complaint against Judge Merriam in fewer than four years. And it's the first time a federal judge has been publicly reprimanded for mistreating clerks, only to engender a second misconduct complaint for similar conduct - flouting both judiciary policy and a public disciplinary order."
"In December 2023, Second Circuit Chief Judge Debra Livingston published a whitewashed disciplinary order disposing of the first complaint against Merriam. The laughable remedies delineated in that order - watching training videos; committing to treating clerks better; checking in with Livingston periodically; and the Director of Workplace Relations (DWR) for the circuit - a clerk point of contact - would check in with Merriam's clerks every six months through 2025 - were toothless. It was literally the least the circuit could do."
On December 18, 2025, The Legal Accountability Project filed a Judicial Conduct and Disability Act complaint against Second Circuit Judge Sarah Merriam, representing a second misconduct complaint within four years. The December 2023 disciplinary order by Chief Judge Debra Livingston imposed minimal remedies—training videos, commitments to treat clerks better, periodic check-ins, and biannual Director of Workplace Relations inquiries through 2025—that proved ineffective. Incoming clerks were misled by the order's characterization of allegations as a personality conflict rather than a hostile work environment, and many clerk complainants lacked legal representation. No external congressional oversight currently governs the judicial complaint process.
Read at Above the Law
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