America First Legal, a conservative legal nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., filed a judicial-conduct complaint against three federal judges in Illinois for engaging in unlawful race and sex discrimination against lawyers.
The complaint, filed Thursday, states that, starting four years ago, judges Nancy Rosenstengel, Staci Yandle, and David Dugan established new policies taking an attorney’s immutable characteristics — namely race and sex — into consideration when granting oral argument in cases. All three judges preside over the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
“Those policies constitute judicial misconduct because they unlawfully discriminate, evidence judicial bias, undermine faith in the judiciary’s integrity, and violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment,” the court filing reads.
Rosenstengel and Yandle first announced such policies in January 2020, followed by Dugan in October 2020. The judges instituted a two-part process of discrimination to “encourage[] the participation of newer, female, and minority attorneys in proceedings,” according to the judicial orders.
Firstly, after a motion has been fully briefed, a party can notify the court that “a newer, female, or minority attorney” can argue the motion, or part of the motion, if argument has been granted by the court.
Secondly, following the request to provide oral argument, the court will grant the request, “if practicable,” and “strongly consider allocating additional time for oral argument beyond what the Court may have otherwise allocated” based on the race or sex of a given lawyer.
America First Legal, in the filing submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit chief judge Diane Sykes, asked that she “carefully consider the contents of this complaint and . . . take appropriate corrective action to ensure that no lawyer appearing before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois faces discrimination based on immutable characteristics.”
To resolve the issue, the legal group demanded that the three judges terminate the discriminatory policies, acknowledge such policies constitute judicial misconduct, and be publicly reprimanded or censured.
“Americans must have faith in the impartiality of the judiciary — knowing that their case will have a fair shot before a court and that they will not receive unfavorable treatment because of the immutable characteristics of the parties before the court or their counsel,” America First Legal vice president and general counsel Gene Hamilton said in a press release accompanying the complaint.
“Yet, in the year 2024, we see federal courts openly using policies that treat some attorneys better than others based on the color of their skin or their sex,” Hamilton added. “This is intolerable and harms the public’s faith and confidence in the judiciary at large. These policies must be rescinded.”