Federal Clerk Crystal Clanton. (Screengrab via YouTube/Fox News).
A federal appeals panel will no longer consider a judicial misconduct complaint against two federal judges who hired a law clerk made famous for her texts declaring, “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.”
The U.S. Circuit Judicial Council on Tuesday unanimously declined to overturn its January 2022 decision that dismissed a misconduct complaint filed against Chief U.S. Circuit Judge for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals — a George W. Bush appointee — and U.S. District Judge Corey Maze, a Donald Trump appointee, in Birmingham, Alabama.
The misconduct at issue was Pryor and Maze’s handling of allegations against federal clerk and former Ginni Thomas associate Crystal Clanton.
Clanton had been a conservative activist who was hired by Thomas — wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who himself has faced numerous ethics questions — to assist her media ventures prior to attending George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in 2021. Clanton next planned to start a yearlong clerkship with Maze for one year, then continue on to another clerkship with Pryor the following year.
In Nov. 2021, Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., sent a letter to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, and Chief Circuit Judge of Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that raised concerns about Pryor and Maze having “hired an individual with a history of nakedly racist and hateful conduct as a future law clerk in their chambers.”
The letter said the conduct of the unnamed clerk was “alarming,” and detailed that while she was a national field director for conservative student group Turning Point USA, “She sent a text message to a colleague stating ‘I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like f[—] them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.””
Additionally, it said the clerk would “exchange racist remarks regularly” with coworkers, and that she often made anti-Muslim jokes and remarks such as “a bacon a day keeps the Islams away.”
The letter continued to argue that given the particularly close relationship between judges and their respective law clerks, the hiring of a clerk “with a widely reported pattern of racist and bigoted conduct” is unacceptable. He prevailed upon the two judges to investigate the allegations, make a formal report of the findings, and take whatever remedial action necessary to maintain the public’s “trust in the integrity and impartiality of the federal judiciary.”
At the time, a Washington Post opinion article said Clanton was unapologetic when first confronted by her remarks.
“I have no recollection of these messages and they do not reflect what I believe or who I am and the same was true when I was a teenager,” she reportedly said. The op-ed noted that it wasn’t clear how old Clanton was when she wrote the text.
Ultimately, the requested investigation into Clanton became the responsibility of the Judicial Council of the Second Circuit, which ultimately concluded that there had been no judicial misconduct associated with Clanton’s hiring. The council dismissed the complaint after finding that both judges “were aware of the allegations” against Clanton, but “were also in possession of information that the allegations were false” and that the sources were untrustworthy.The national judicial misconduct council then directed the Second Circuit panel to conduct a new investigation.
However, Pryor and Maze argued that the national committee had exceeded its legal authority to make such an order and that the Second Circuit’s dismissal order was final. The Judicial Council ruled Monday that it would not reconsider the matter and cited the same arguments raised by the two Republican-appointed judges.
“In light of the significant question raised by the Subject Judges as to the statutory authority of the JC&D Committee to issue its July 8, 2022, directive, the Second Circuit Judicial Council voted unanimously to seek guidance from the Judicial Conference of the United States,” said the brief order.
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