In December 2025, NPR reported that a nonprofit organization had filed a misconduct complaint against Judge Sarah Merriam of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit—one of the most powerful federal appellate courts in the nation.[1] The allegations? That she ‘yells,’ ‘berates,’ and sends ‘all-caps unhinged emails’ to her law clerks. According to the Legal Accountability Project, which filed the complaint, one clerk quit after just one month, and four others withdrew job offers after learning about the work environment.[2]
This wasn’t even the first complaint. In 2023, an internal investigation found evidence of an ‘overly harsh’ management style. The remedy? The judge agreed to watch some workplace conduct videos and receive counseling. Problem solved—except, of course, it wasn’t. The complaints keep coming.[3]
If a federal judge—someone entrusted with interpreting and applying the law—cannot be meaningfully held accountable for bullying behavior in her own chambers, what does that tell us about the state of workplace bullying law in America? The answer is both simple and damning: there is none.
The Problem Persists—And It’s Getting Worse
In October 2020, I wrote about workplace bullying on this blog, citing alarming statistics from the Workplace Bullying Institute.[4] Back then, 19% of American workers reported being directly bullied, affecting approximately 60 million workers. I warned that the lack of legal protections left workers vulnerable and that legislative action was urgently needed.
Five years later, the situation has grown worse. The 2024 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey—the organization’s sixth national study—reveals that 32.3% of American workers now report being directly bullied at work. That’s approximately 52.2 million workers.[5] When you include those who witness bullying, the number of affected workers climbs to nearly 75 million Americans. This isn’t a workplace problem; it’s an epidemic.
The demographics of bullying remain deeply troubling. African-American workers experience bullying at a rate of 44%—significantly higher than the national average. LGBTQ workers report even higher rates at 51%. Women comprise 51% of targets, while men account for a staggering 71% of perpetrators. Supervisors and bosses remain the most frequent bullies, responsible for 55% of workplace bullying.[6]
Perhaps most disturbing is what happens to workers who are bullied: they have a 62% chance of losing their jobs. They are terminated, forced to quit, or constructively discharged. Meanwhile, the bullies? They face negative consequences only 27% of the time. The math is brutal: if you’re bullied at work, you’re more than twice as likely to lose your job as your bully is to face any accountability.[7]
The Legal Gap: Bullying Is Just Harassment Without a Protected Class
Here is one of the glaring and fundamental problems with American employment law: harassment is perfectly legal unless it targets someone because of their membership in a protected class.
Under Title VII and its state law equivalents, unlawful harassment is conduct that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create a hostile or abusive work environment. Courts evaluate whether the conduct would be offensive to a reasonable person and whether the victim subjectively perceived it as such. This is the legal standard that protects workers from sexual harassment, racial harassment, and harassment based on religion, national origin, disability, age, and other protected characteristics.[8]
But strip away the protected class requirement, and what do you have? The exact same conduct—just legal.
Consider this: If a supervisor screams at an employee daily, sends threatening emails, humiliates them in front of colleagues, sabotages their work, and creates such a hostile environment that the employee suffers anxiety, depression, and physical health problems—that conduct is entirely lawful, so long as the supervisor isn’t doing it because the employee is a woman, or Black, or disabled, or over forty.
This is absurd. The harm is identical. The conduct is identical. The impact on the employee’s health, livelihood, and dignity is identical. Yet our legal system says: if the bully is an equal-opportunity abuser—if they treat everyone with the same contempt—then the victim has no recourse.
The late Justice Antonin Scalia once warned against turning Title VII into a ‘general civility code for the American workplace.’[9] His concern was that courts would be flooded with petty grievances. But Justice Scalia had it backwards. The question isn’t whether we should police every minor slight—it’s whether we should permit systematic psychological abuse simply because the abuser doesn’t discriminate in choosing victims.
Americans Agree: The Law Is Wrong
If you think only plaintiff’s employment lawyers hold this view, think again. The 2024 WBI survey asked Americans whether they would support a law allowing workers to sue employers who fail to prevent workplace bullying. The results were overwhelming: 87% of Americans support such a law.[10]
This isn’t a partisan issue. Support crossed all ideological and political lines: 82% of conservatives, 75% of moderates, 92% of liberals. Among political parties: 84% of Republicans, 92% of Democrats, and 85% of independents. Only 8% of Americans said current laws are adequate.[11]
When 87% of Americans—across the political spectrum—agree that something should be illegal, and it isn’t, something is profoundly wrong with our legislative process.
The Legislative Landscape: A Graveyard of Good Intentions
Since 2003, the Workplace Bullying Institute has advocated for the Healthy Workplace Bill—model legislation drafted by Suffolk University Law Professor David Yamada that would create a civil cause of action for severe workplace bullying. The bill has been introduced in 32 states over two decades.[12]
Not one has passed it into law.[13]
The only jurisdiction to enact comprehensive workplace anti-bullying legislation is Puerto Rico, which passed Act 90-2020 in August 2020. That law—signed despite ‘mass opposition from the private sector’—defines workplace harassment as malicious, unwanted, repetitive, and abusive conduct that creates an intimidating, humiliating, hostile, or offensive work environment. It requires employers to adopt preventive policies, allows employees to sue for damages, and provides for automatic doubling of any damages awarded.[14]
In the continental United States? Nothing. Rhode Island has come closest. The Workplace Psychological Safety Act has passed the state Senate multiple times—in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024—only to die each time in the House. The bill has been reintroduced again in 2025.[15] Meanwhile, New York’s S1893 (the Healthy Workplace Bill) passed out of the Senate Labor Committee in May 2025 and awaits further action.[16] Massachusetts and West Virginia have also introduced versions of the legislation in 2025.
Professor Yamada has also drafted a new alternative approach—the Workplace Bullying Accountability Act—which emphasizes employer prevention and response duties rather than solely relying on civil litigation. It’s being introduced in several states starting in 2025. Perhaps this framework will break through where others have failed.[17]
But I’m not optimistic. Business lobbying groups continue to oppose any legislation, claiming it would create liability for ‘aggressive management styles’ and discourage employers from ‘pushing for excellence.’[18] This framing is dishonest. The legislation targets repeated, severe, health-harming abuse—not tough feedback or high standards. The fact that employers fear liability tells you they know bullying is happening in their workplaces and they don’t want to be responsible for stopping it.
The Judge Problem: Who Polices the Police?
Which brings us back to Judge Sarah Merriam and the federal judiciary’s inability to police itself.[19]
Law clerks occupy an extraordinarily vulnerable position. They’re young attorneys, often fresh out of law school, who depend on their judge for career-making recommendations. Federal clerkships are prestigious, and clerks are expected to endure whatever their judge dishes out. People who work for the courts don’t enjoy the same employment protections that most other American workers do. Complaints are handled internally, by courts that police themselves, in part to protect the judiciary’s independence.[20]
The result? A ‘culture of fear about reporting judges,’ as NPR’s investigation found. When Judge Merriam was previously investigated, her ‘punishment’ was watching workplace training videos and receiving counseling. If this is meaningful accountability, then our standards have collapsed entirely.[21]
And here’s the uncomfortable question we must ask: If federal judges cannot or will not police bullying in their own chambers, how can we expect them to fairly adjudicate workplace bullying cases if such laws are ever enacted?
This is not an abstract concern. Judges who bully their own clerks—or who tolerate such behavior from colleagues—may be predisposed to view ‘aggressive management’ as acceptable. They may dismiss employees’ claims as oversensitivity. They may identify with defendant employers rather than plaintiff workers. The judiciary’s failure to hold its own accountable doesn’t just harm law clerks; it calls into question whether judges can be impartial arbiters of workplace abuse claims.
A Simple Solution
The solution to America’s workplace bullying epidemic is straightforward: remove the protected class requirement from harassment law.
We already have decades of well-developed legal standards for what constitutes actionable harassment. We know how to evaluate whether conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive. We know how to assess hostile work environments. We know how to balance employer interests against employee dignity. We know how to provide affirmative defenses for employers who take reasonable preventive and corrective action.
The only thing we need to change is removing the requirement that the harassment be ‘because of’ a protected characteristic. If conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment—if it would be objectively offensive to a reasonable person—it should be unlawful. Period.
This isn’t a radical proposal. It’s the logical extension of principles we already accept. We’ve already decided, as a society, that workers shouldn’t have to endure abusive, hostile work environments. We’ve just arbitrarily limited that protection to certain categories of workers—those who can prove their abuser selected them for their identity rather than for some other reason, or for no reason at all.
The Healthy Workplace Bill and the Workplace Bullying Accountability Act both offer viable legislative frameworks. Puerto Rico has shown it can be done. Other countries—including much of Europe—already protect workers from psychological abuse without requiring proof of discriminatory intent.
Conclusion: Enough Is Enough
In 2020, I asked: ‘When are they going to enact a general civility code for the American workplace?’[22] Five years later, the answer is clear: not yet, and not without a fight.
But 52 million bullied workers can’t wait forever. Seventy-five million affected Americans deserve better. And when 87% of the public supports legal protection and only 8% think the status quo is acceptable, it’s time for legislators to listen.
If you’re being bullied at work, you don’t have to suffer in silence. While the law is inadequate, a skilled employment attorney may be able to identify related claims—retaliation, discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress—or help you navigate internal complaint processes and negotiated exits. Document everything. Report through proper channels. Seek medical help if your health is suffering. And know that the problem isn’t you.
The problem is a legal system that says some abuse is unacceptable and some is just fine—depending on why the bully chose you as a target. That’s not justice. It’s an accident of legislative history that we have the power to change.
It’s time to make workplace bullying illegal. Full stop.
If you are experiencing workplace bullying or believe you may have an employment law claim, contact the employment attorneys at Carey & Associates, P.C. at 475-325-5072. We represent employees in Connecticut, New York, and nationwide.
[1]Carrie Johnson, Federal appeals court judge is accused of bullying her clerks, NPR News (Dec. 30, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/12/30/g-s1-103922/judge-complaint-clerk-legal-accountability
[2]Id.
[3]Id. (citing David Lat’s 2024 report identifying Judge Merriam as the subject of the 2023 investigation).
[4]Chris Avcollie, You have the right to…NOT remain silent…Dealing with Bullies in the Workplace, Carey & Associates, P.C. Blog (Oct. 14, 2020), https://capclaw.com/you-have-the-right-tonot-remain-silentdealing-with-bullies-in-the-workplace/.
[5]Workplace Bullying Institute, 2024 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey (2024), https://workplacebullying.org/2024-wbi-us-survey/. The complete report is available at https://workplacebullying.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-Complete-Report.pdf.
[6]Id.
[7]Id.
[8]See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964); Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21 (1993) (establishing that conduct must be severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile work environment); Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986).
[9]Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 80 (1998) (Scalia, J.) (“Title VII does not reach genuine but innocuous differences in the ways men and women routinely interact with members of the same sex and of the opposite sex. . . . [It] is not a general civility code for the American workplace.”).
[10]2024 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, supra note 5.
[11]Id.
[12]Healthy Workplace Bill, Workplace Bullying Institute, https://healthyworkplacebill.org/ (last visited Jan. 16, 2026).
[13]Id.
[14]Act to Prohibit and Prevent Workplace Harassment in Puerto Rico, Act 90-2020 (P.R. 2020) (enacted Aug. 7, 2020); see also Workplace Bullying Institute, Puerto Rico Enacts Workplace Bullying Law (Aug. 10, 2020), https://workplacebullying.org/pr-hwb-2020/; Littler Mendelson, Puerto Rico Enacts Law on Workplace Harassment (Aug. 11, 2020), https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/puerto-rico-enacts-law-workplace-harassment.
[15]R.I. H.B. 8044, S.B. 2473 (2024); see Safety+Health Magazine, Psychological safety bill back before Rhode Island lawmakers (Mar. 22, 2024), https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/25224-psychological-safety-bill-back-before-rhode-island-lawmakers; Marcela García, Rhode Island takes on the office bully, Boston Globe (May 3, 2024), https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/03/opinion/office-bullying-rhode-island-law/. The bill has been reintroduced as R.I. H.B. 5132 (2025).
[16]N.Y. S.B. 1893 (2025), available at https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S1893; see also Workplace Bullying Institute, 2025 WBI Legislative Activity in U.S. States, https://workplacebullying.org/activity-25/ (last visited Jan. 16, 2026) (noting S1893 passed out of Senate Labor Committee on May 20, 2025).
[17]Workplace Bullying Institute, Workplace Bullying Accountability Act, https://workplacebullying.org/wbaa/ (last visited Jan. 16, 2026); David Yamada, New Workplace Bullying Accountability Act introduced in Massachusetts legislature, Minding the Workplace (Jan. 20, 2025), https://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/new-workplace-bullying-accountability-act-introduced-in-massachusetts-legislature/.
[18]See Pullman & Comley, Workplace Bullying and The Law, https://www.pullcom.com/working-together/workplace-bullying-and-the-law (last visited Jan. 16, 2026) (noting employer groups argue the legislation “discourages employers from pushing for excellence”).
[19]Johnson, supra note 1.
[20]Id. (“People who work for the courts don’t enjoy the same kinds of job protections that most other American workers do.”).
[21]Id. (“NPR found a culture of fear about reporting judges and concluded that the courts’ internal system often fails to result in meaningful change.”).
[22]See Avcollie, supra note 4.
