A number of public interest groups, including Lawyers Defending American Democracy and Lawyers for the Rule of Law, filed a disciplinary complaint against Attorney General Pam Bondi with her admitting authority, the Florida Bar.
The last thing that occurred to me when I first read of the bar complaint against Pam Bondi was that the petitioners are sheep. Quite the opposite; especially these days when courage, particularly in our profession, seems in short supply. I have been following some of the more than 250 cases filed against the Trump administration, and one recurring theme is the questionable conduct by a number of DOJ attorneys, those who seem to have ignored their duty of candor as well as other ethical obligations noted in your article today. These are the sheep among us, believing that the ends justify the means and enthusiastically allowing themselves to be sucked into MAGA world. I feel bad for them, but far more for my country. And I cannot overstate my admiration for you as a signatory to the complaint against someone who degrades our profession almost every day.
Thanks, Mick, but lawyers and academics are contrarians by nature. The outliers are the sheep-like lawyers, but access to power and prominence is an ever-present temptation. Look at Alina Habba. She was a former small-time PI lawyer in Florida, got yelled at and almost thrown in the lockup by Lewis Kaplan, and now she's the US Attorney for New Jersey. Patronage is as old as politics itself, but with MAGA we're seeing a lot of dramatically unqualified people brought into government - Fox News talking heads, right-wing influencers, and the kinds of lawyers who were willing to represent Trump after January 6. One of the core tenets of the MAGA movement is to shun the establishment, including the lawyers who have learned their craft the right way, coming up through clerkships, private practice, and government services. One of the things we're now collectively realizing is that the traditional process of training and socialization played an important stabilizing role in government. Without it you get a lot of lawless flailing around by the administration and there's only so much courts can do to put the brakes on it.
The last thing that occurred to me when I first read of the bar complaint against Pam Bondi was that the petitioners are sheep. Quite the opposite; especially these days when courage, particularly in our profession, seems in short supply. I have been following some of the more than 250 cases filed against the Trump administration, and one recurring theme is the questionable conduct by a number of DOJ attorneys, those who seem to have ignored their duty of candor as well as other ethical obligations noted in your article today. These are the sheep among us, believing that the ends justify the means and enthusiastically allowing themselves to be sucked into MAGA world. I feel bad for them, but far more for my country. And I cannot overstate my admiration for you as a signatory to the complaint against someone who degrades our profession almost every day.
Thanks, Mick, but lawyers and academics are contrarians by nature. The outliers are the sheep-like lawyers, but access to power and prominence is an ever-present temptation. Look at Alina Habba. She was a former small-time PI lawyer in Florida, got yelled at and almost thrown in the lockup by Lewis Kaplan, and now she's the US Attorney for New Jersey. Patronage is as old as politics itself, but with MAGA we're seeing a lot of dramatically unqualified people brought into government - Fox News talking heads, right-wing influencers, and the kinds of lawyers who were willing to represent Trump after January 6. One of the core tenets of the MAGA movement is to shun the establishment, including the lawyers who have learned their craft the right way, coming up through clerkships, private practice, and government services. One of the things we're now collectively realizing is that the traditional process of training and socialization played an important stabilizing role in government. Without it you get a lot of lawless flailing around by the administration and there's only so much courts can do to put the brakes on it.