Prof. Alan Rozenshtein Quoted in Washington Post About Database Meant to Improve Working Conditions for Judicial Employees

Prof. Alan Rozenshtein was quoted in the Washington Post about a new crowdsourced database meant to improve working conditions for judicial employees. It will allow young lawyers to review the judges they worked for and give law students a way to learn which judges have good — or bad — reputations as employers. The database solicits feedback on a judge’s interviewing process, hours, assignment style and workplace environment. Judges are also given a “positive, neutral, or negative” rating. The database founder said she uses identification cards and other methods of proof to verify the identity of every student who wants access to the database and every former clerk contributing to it, although the reports themselves are by default anonymous. That setup is likely to protect the database from defamation lawsuits. Under a law known as Section 230, operators of online forums can’t be held responsible for the content posted on their sites. Professor Rozenshtein said “That’s pretty core Section 230 and I say this as someone who has generally advocated for narrower Section 230 interpretations.” But, he said, “they will have to be very careful with exactly how they do this.”