A federal appeals court panel has rejected a misconduct complaint against two judges who signed a letter promising to stop hiring law clerks from Columbia University over the institution’s handling of student protests tied to the Israel-Hamas war.
In a newly released Aug 12. order, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s judicial council said it was affirming the dismissal of a misconduct complaint filed against a district and circuit judge. Two of the letters’ signatories sit within the circuit, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch and US District Judge Tilman Self III of the Middle District of Georgia.
Thirteen federal judges in May signed the letter announcing a boycott of clerks from Columbia, saying it has “become an incubator of bigotry” and “disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.”
Chief Judge William Pryor in June had dismissed the complaint, according to the papers posted on Friday.
According to his order, the complainant alleged that the judges’ conduct “has made it apparent that they are politicians and possibly foreign agents masquerading as federal judges. The judges’ resort to collective punishment is an affront to this nation’s core principles of individuality and individual rights.”
Pryor wrote that the complaint didn’t present a basis for finding misconduct by the judges. “Federal judges routinely hire law clerks and must consider applicants’ educational backgrounds in determining whether an applicant is qualified for, and will succeed in, the job,” he said. “As part of that consideration, judges are permitted to make reasonable conclusions regarding the value and quality of a school’s educational program.”
The Fifth Circuit’s judicial council in August also rejected a similar complaint against judges within that circuit who signed the Columbia letter. And US District Judge Daniel Traynor of North Dakota, another signatory, on Friday turned down a request to step back from a lawsuit tied to protests over the Dakota Access pipeline, after attorneys raised concerns about potential bias over their ties to Columbia.
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