Judge’s SEX SCANDAL Exposes BROKEN Court System

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This week there was quite the gavl bang.

[00:00:02]We had a judicial order that concluded a federal judge had engaged in misconduct and the federal judge in question was not Samo, but this misconduct report such as it is was so wild I really wanted to talk about it with Aaron Ryan.

[00:00:16]So what exactly happened? There were two documents that were kind of released into the public record, and they detailed an investigation and findings about how a federal judge engaged in a long-term affair in their office with a senior official at a police department that could have been a litigant in front of the judge. They consummated the affair so loudly the law clerks allegedly could hear said affair um outside the office. Add to that that the judge apparently attended a partisan political event. Um no no not supposed to do. And also when this allegation was kind of put to the judge, lied about it, tried to blame the law clerk and the report concluded that the only thing that was warranted was a private reprimand. Aaron, where to start with this one?

[00:01:15]>> Um, oh my goodness. I mean, the the the legal filing that I mean, I'm just a lay person. And I'm not I'm a non- lawyer, but it was it was quite spicy reading because every single point was like and then and then and then like not only is it super inappropriate and and morally questionable, not not very good in legal terms. Um it was subjecting her clerks to a sexually harassing work environment. I think unless you're working on a porn set, you don't want to hear sex sounds during your workday. No, you definitely do not. And so part of this document that I enjoyed the most was hearing about the other federal judge's investigation into the law clerk's allegations because the judges investigating this complaint said, "Oh, the law clerk said they could hear this.

[00:02:05]Let's conduct a natural experiment and go into a room or a building structure with a similar structure, make some noises, and ask, "Can you hear it outside the building?" Let's also take the couch pillow out for testing. It was all wonderful, >> right? It was it was like perverted like Attekus Finch like I will demonstrate here at the sound of this, you know, the sound of the banging could be heard like going in. They they tested the couch cushion to to for bodily fluids. Um >> apparently came up negative, but still >> you are in a bad spot if your work couch is being tested for semen.

[00:02:45]>> Yes. That's not great. That's not great.

[00:02:48]I think that the reason that this really blew up in addition to like how salacious it was was the fact that she was issued a private reprimand. Yes. And also because it was private, people who had familiarity with the court system or an ability to use the Google kind of kind of like snapped into investigator mode, including myself. Um so so we knew that it took place within the 11th circuit. We had some clues in there about like this person had clearly worked for ADA's office before this person uh certain events took place around a primary. There was only one of the three states in in the 11th circuit that had a primary around that time. And so by process of elimination, it didn't take people very long to zero in on who it must be. No, it didn't. And indeed, Bloomberg reported today that the judge reportedly subject to this allegation and finding was Judge Ross, who is a district judge in Georgia. And again, did not take more than 24 hours for anyone with a keyboard to be able to figure that out. But the private reprimand really stuck out to me as well because bracket the salacious allegations which were definitely the entree into this story like for many including myself. I think what it also describes is something you know that people who are familiar with the federal courts know which is it's really hard to actually accuse judges of misconduct especially workplace misconduct because what did the judge get here? a private slap on the wrist for lying to other federal judges. If you lie to federal officials, most people go to jail. Here, the judge got a private reprimand.

[00:04:32]>> And not only that, the judge tried to blame their law clerks for this. You know, the judge's initial statement was, "Oh, the law clerk is just saying this because I gave them a hard time about using their cell phone at work." And the judge continued to make this claim throughout the proceeding. And so, you know, the law clerks, they don't have any power in this situation. They tried to do the right thing here and work up the chain. And what do they get? They're blamed for it. This, you know, judicial counsel or whatever, makes no finding about whether the judge mistreated her law clerks. I mean, it's just it's it's really gross. It's super gross.

[00:05:11]>> It's super gross. And I'm going to say the Bloomberg headline is uh in the words that Michael used to describe it, rough. It is a rough headline. The headline is Eleanor Ross of Atlanta is judge reprimanded for sex in chambers.

[00:05:23]That is that is a rough headline.

[00:05:26]There's no curiosity gap. There it is.

[00:05:29]There it is.

[00:05:30]>> Also like the judge reprimanded for sex in chambers. There's um one of the district courts in the country, the Eastern District of Virginia, is known as what's called the Rocket Docket because they move cases very quickly.

[00:05:42]And I feel like this report made a real play for renaming a district in Georgia the Rock it docket like rock it IT docket rather than rock ET docket. But you know maybe that was just me. That headline, you know, definitely made the case for it.

[00:05:58]>> Yeah. I mean the the point you bring up about how difficult it is to punish federal judges is is really apt. Like what would it take for a federal judge to be unse like I I'm genuinely asking what are the mechanisms in place to get a federal judge out if they've like done gross misconduct like not only was it sex in their chambers during the workday it was involving somebody who as you said could have been a litigant in front of them. It was yes it was very openly uh not in line with the ethics of what a judge should be doing. Not in line with the ethics you know in addition to giving rise to questions about the judge's partiality. not only because of the affair but the attendance at the partisan political event. Also workplace misconduct, right? Like if an employer mistreats their employees, that is oftentimes grounds for disciplining the employer, if not removing them. And here all the judge was made to do was write letters of apology to the law clerks that heard this affair being conducted behind closed doors. And that's hardly sufficient. So I mean, what are the mechanisms? This is a sad reminder that there aren't any. Like the only real one right now is impeachment. And I would love it, you know, if Democrats, you know, actually grew a spine and decided to go for impeaching some judges.

[00:07:15]Frankly, I think, you know, the allegations in this complaint, you know, for me kind of should cross over the line into warranting impeachment. Um, and that's again >> in addition to all of the things many other federal judges have done as well.

[00:07:28]Um, but it's a testament to the fact that the federal court system is broken in so many ways, including in its ability to hold federal judges accountable for anything they do.

[00:07:38]>> Mhm. And there's a part of me that thinks that because Ross was an Obama appointee, um, she was appointed in 2014. Um, I think that Democrats, this is this is a clear-cut case for Democrats to be like, "This is wrong.

[00:07:54]We're going to open the door to more impeachments." It's like it cannot be spun as a a partisan move. This is just the morally correct move is this person probably should no longer be a federal judge. Right. Exactly. And it's also a reminder that, you know, judges, they're just people. They're just employers.

[00:08:10]This is far from the only accusation of workplace misconduct or sexual misconduct against a federal judge. You know, there was a Trump appointee from 1.0, you know, who was accused of assaulting, you know, someone who was his former law clerk. Um, you know, Judge Alex Kazinski, former chief judge of the Ninth Circuit, was accused of harassing, you know, law clerks and basically any woman who came within 10 feet of him. Um, you know, there are other cases as well. And, you know, judges, they're not above the law.

[00:08:36]They're not so different from us. And that means they should be subject to the law and the other kinds of rules that we all have to comply with or face penalties when we don't.

[00:08:46]>> Now, how would federal how would impeachment of a federal judge look?

[00:08:49]like would that have to be something I mean it educate me because I have never seen it happen in my life and I have no idea how it actually work. Fingers crossed uh we get this you know movie very soon. Um but basically it works like the impeachment of a president. The house will file articles of impeachment and then there is a trial in the senate.

[00:09:08]>> Okay. So that seems like I mean with the number of federal judges and the number of federal judges that have probably done some uh bad things maybe some nos some do not do. Um it sounds like that would be a pretty timeintensive way for them to remedy the situation. Um but you know maybe more Democrats should be running on that. Like we need to impeach judges that are doing things that are wrong because it seems like a pretty substantial problem.

[00:09:36]>> Yeah. I mean, I think it really folds into a, you know, no elite impunity, no elite unaccountability platform, you know, an anti-corruption platform. You know, if you think about some of the things that the Supreme Court justices are doing, as well as some of the things that district judges do, right? They are things again that ordinary people who are ordinary employers would be disciplined for. And judges shouldn't be exempt from that just because they are judges. they already enjoy a bunch of other protections that other people don't in the workplace, but having to abide by the law, like that shouldn't be something they are excused from.

[00:10:12]>> Right. Right. And you know, I would hope that if Democrats started impeaching federal judges or starting filing articles of impeachment against federal judges, then maybe it would put the fear of God in um certain other federal judges.

[00:10:26]>> You know, deterrence is a rationale for criminal law. It could be a rationale for impeachment, too. Uh this is something that lawyers say all the time, so why not turn it back on the profession?

[00:10:36]>> And you also mentioned, Leah, there were um allegations against the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit that were like sexual in nature. Is it common in the legal profession for there to be a sort of whisper network around sexual misconduct by male judges?

[00:10:50]>> Um there are definitely whisper networks in the legal profession just like there are in any other profession. Um, whisper networks of course are highly imperfect because not everyone has access to them.

[00:11:01]You know, there are certain things that I heard about. There are other things, other individuals within the legal profession that I didn't hear anything about before accusations went public.

[00:11:10]And so, you know, they there are whisper networks. Um, and they can ameliate some harms. Um, and they are better than nothing, but they are woefully inadequate and incomplete given the power that these federal courts have.

[00:11:23]>> Mhm. All right. Well, this is a crazy case and if anybody wants some juicy weekend reading, um the docks are out there. You can read them. Um and then you can bother your elected officials about how to rectify the situation because this is this isn't good. We need we need to be taking steps to make sure that federal judges can't act like this.

[00:11:44]>> Indeed. Uh plus one to that.

[00:11:46]>> Thanks for listening. Um, please take a second to subscribe to Strict Scrutiny on YouTube for more such updates, although hopefully not sex pest ones.

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