A federal judge who was reprimanded for having a yearslong affair with a police commander in her court chambers, among other ethical lapses, wrote a second round of apology letters to her former clerks this week, saying her “offensive conduct” was “patently wrong.”
“I have no excuse and immensely regret my behavior,” wrote Judge Eleanor Ross, a veteran jurist in federal court in Atlanta.
The letters were an extraordinary admission from a sitting federal judge who is facing censure and calls for impeachment. They follow a rebuke from a chief judge, as well as comments from former clerks who said that she was too dismissive in her earlier apologies.
The scandal and the initial punishment meted out to Judge Ross underscored the leniency that is often afforded to federal judges, who hold lifetime appointments. The case also raised questions about a disciplinary system that leaves it up to judges to police their colleagues’ behavior.
Judge Ross’s admissions come in the wake of a New York Times report that included interviews with three former clerks, who said clerks had several times heard her having sex through her office door. The clerks also said she had fobbed off her duties on them, regularly rubber-stamping their draft orders in lawsuits. One clerk reported the behavior last year, setting in motion an inquiry from a judicial committee that ended last month in a private reprimand.
In light of the punishment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit’s judicial council, Judge Ross had agreed to send six of her former clerks apology letters, but The Times reported that some clerks were offended by brevity and vagueness of the three-sentence letters.
Some former clerks had shared them with Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the 11th Circuit, who wrote to Judge Ross this week, saying he was considering opening a new inquiry. The new letters were issued Thursday, and Judge Ross’s office shared one with The Times.
“My initial letter was entirely deficient, as I did not take full accountability for my actions, and I failed to give you the apology that you deserve,” Judge Ross wrote.
She also apologized for initially suggesting to investigators that the clerk who reported her was retaliating against her.
Renee Knake Jefferson, a law professor at the University of Houston, said that in her two decades of research on legal ethics, she could not think of any instance in which a judge was forced to rewrite an apology as part of a sanction.
“It appears the only reason Judge Ross has been asked to redo her apology,” she added, “is because of public outcry over the lack of meaningful discipline. The public deserves better from the federal judiciary and its discipline process.”
Judge Ross’s latest apology didn’t satisfy one of the clerks who complained about her initial letter. The clerk told The Times that it appeared the judge expressed remorse only when forced to do so.
Judge Ross’s misconduct — which also included lying to colleagues as well as attending a campaign event for Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney — has emerged at a moment when the judiciary’s credibility is under attack from a White House unhappy with rulings that have limited presidential power.
The letters from Judge Ross contained no indication that she might give up her job, despite calls for her to resign from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Judge Ross was nominated to the federal bench in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Two Republican congressmen have recently filed impeachment resolutions, citing her misconduct. The Justice Department also is asking that she recuse herself from a high-profile lawsuit before her.
In that case, the Justice Department is seeking Georgia’s voter rolls from the state’s top elections official and has argued that Judge Ross’s attendance at the event for Ms. Willis gave at least the appearance of bias. Ms. Willis, a Democrat, tried to prosecute President Trump for interfering in the 2020 election.
The Justice Department asked that she make a decision on recusing by Friday, though it is unclear if she will do so.
Judge Ross had worked as a prosecutor and later as a state court judge before assuming the federal bench. She gained some prominence in 2022 for overseeing the trial of Todd and Julie Chrisley, the reality show couple who were convicted of tax evasion and fraud before being pardoned by President Trump.
Judge Ross’s scandal comes amid a spate of alleged misbehavior by federal judges. There are active misconduct complaints into an appellate judge who was charged with two misdemeanors after confronting another driver in an Idaho parking lot, and a district court judge in Michigan who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of violating probation from an earlier misdemeanor D.U.I. conviction.
Gabe Roth, who leads Fix the Court, a judicial reform group, said there were innate problems with allowing judges to dole out each other’s punishment. “Baked into the current rules is the ability of judges to run interference for each other,” he said. “That’s what we have here.”
