WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emory University law students petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the federal judiciary's internal system for handling workplace complaints. The Supreme Court has requested a response from the Department of Justice regarding the student petition.

Federal court employees are excluded from standard civil rights workplace protections against harassment and discrimination. Federal court workers currently lack access to independent agencies for reporting workplace misconduct. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace harassment and discrimination, and Congress passed legislation in 1995 extending Title VII workplace protections to congressional staff.

Sofia Bettini, a recent graduate from Emory University, assisted in drafting the Supreme Court petition. She said, "You may not know as a student entering a clerkship that you're going to forgo certain workplace protections that you otherwise would never have to even consider forgoing because they just seem that fundamental." Bettini said, "They have nowhere to turn, no independent enforcer, no neutral decision maker and there exists a very real threat that speaking up will cost them everything." She added, "Autonomy for the institution cannot come at the cost of basic workplace rights and safety for people within it."

The federal judiciary employs approximately 30,000 workers. Each federal circuit court maintains an internal human resources program to handle employee workplace disputes. Internal judicial rules generally assign oversight of workplace complaints against court staff to judges within the same court. Caryn Strickland, a former federal public defender, said, "The shortcomings in civil rights protections for the judiciary's 30,000 employees will only be addressed if the legal community is willing to stand up publicly against this serious injustice."

The Emory University Supreme Court Advocacy Program does not offer academic credit or grades for student participants. Paul Koster, a law professor, said, "These students aren't getting credits for this, they're not getting graded on this, they're doing the work because they want to do the work." The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts maintains that the judiciary's internal complaint system is robust and stated that administrative changes are underway to improve the process for reporting workplace misconduct.