Purple Campaign Applauds Landmark Ruling In Caryn Devins Strickland v. United States et. al

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2022

Media Inquiries:
[email protected]

The Purple Campaign Applauds Landmark Ruling Recognizing Employee’s Right to be Free From Sexual Harassment

Recent opinion rendered in Jane Roe v. United States et. al. (now Caryn Devins Strickland v. United States et. al, due to the plaintiff’s recent decision to drop the pseudonym) provides substantive recognition of Strickland’s Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the Fifth Amendment.

WASHINGTON, DC — As public interest and civil rights organizations committed to gender justice and civil rights, The Purple Campaign and its partners applaud the court’s decision in Caryn Devins Strickland v. United States et. al. This landmark ruling recognizes, for the first time, the Constitutional right of federal judiciary employees to work in an environment free from sexual harassment.

As noted in the amicus brief led by the Purple Campaign, the National Women’s Law Center, and Legal Momentum, and in partnership with our pro bono counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the fact that the more than 30,000 employees of the federal judiciary currently lack federal statutory protections against workplace harassment and discrimination highlights the need to recognize such rights under the Constitution. We are pleased that the Court agreed and recognized Strickland’s Constitutional “right to redress injuries caused by workplace discrimination, a right that is fundamentally equivalent to a cause of action and one that is vitally important considering the lack of alternative means of seeking relief for employees of the federal judiciary.”

As our brief also highlighted, the facts of Strickland’s case — which included quid-pro-quo sexual harassment and related retaliation — underscored the importance of ensuring that equal protection claims survive in situations like this one. We applaud the court for agreeing with us and properly recognizing, for the first time, that “the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause secures a federal judiciary employee’s right to be free from sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Despite the historic nature of this ruling, the Court’s opinion highlights the continuing need for legislative and policy reform to protect federal judiciary employees. At the same time that it recognized Strickland’s substantive Constitutional rights, the Court also held that certain defendants are immune from these claims and that specific remedies — including back pay — remain unavailable under existing law. We therefore urge Congress to enact the Judiciary Accountability Act of 2021 (the “JAA”) to ensure that federal judiciary employees like Strickland have the same rights and remedies available to private sector employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to employees of the other two branches of the U.S. government.

The Purple Campaign is a nonpartisan advocacy organization that addresses workplace harassment by implementing stronger corporate policies and establishing better laws. It was founded in 2018 and has worked with a broad coalition of stakeholders since its founding to reduce workplace harassment, respond appropriately, rethink how to combat workplace harassment from a broader perspective, and rebuild shared norms and expectations among employers across industries.

###