The Senate Committee on the Judiciary is holding a hearing now: “Confronting Sexual Harassment and Other Workplace Misconduct in the Federal Judiciary.” The live feed is here Senator Richard Blumenthal is talking now about why federal judges who commit sexual harassment can retire, avoid formal censure, and continue to collect full pay. He also stated that he clerked for Justice Blackmun, who would find harassment in the judiciary to be atrocious.

Witnesses at the hearing are James Duff, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; Jaime Santos, an associate at Goodwin Procter and former federal law clerk; and Jenny Yang, former federal law clerk and former chair of the U.S. EEOC. Ms. Santos’s written testimony begins in substance as follows, previewing the basic difficulty law clerks encounter when dealing with harassment:

Judicial chambers are unlike any other type of working environment. Individuals lucky enough to be hired to work with judges are typically law students, for whom judges are more demigods than they are employers. Judges are titans of the profession who have shaped the law as we know it. A law clerk enters a clerkship with the belief that her judge will challenge her to become a better thinker, be a lifelong mentor, and set an example that she can follow for her entire career. When a law clerk experiences or witnesses harassment, it can be devastating on a personal and professional level. And it is incredibly difficult to speak up against someone who has the unmatched power of a life-tenured federal judge.

Judge Alex Kozinski’s former law clerk Heidi Bond, who writes as Courtney Milan, wrote about her experience here and is live-tweeting the hearing. Her letter about what could help prevent its recurrence was entered into the record by Senator Grassley.

(Note after the hearing: The recording remains available at the link, with hearing statements beginning at approximately minute 15:30.)