Every year — or at least most years — in honor of the NCAA Tournament, Above the Law runs a law-related bracket competition. We’ve crowned the Worst Law School in America. We’ve identified the Greatest Work of Legal Fiction. This year, we’re going somewhere new. And by “new,” I mean “depressingly of the moment.”
In January, we declared that the profession — for its own good — must immediately and fiercely press licensing authorities to pursue discipline against the Trump administration’s lawyers. Disbar them all… or at least all the ones with even a modicum of decision-making authority. The administration’s lawyers have already been caught lying or otherwise misleading tribunals across the country. They have signed off on defying court orders. They’ve breached basic rules of prosecutorial responsibility. Expansive conceptions of immunity mean there is no other recourse to hold these lawyers accountable other than for the state officials to hold these lawyers to their professional and ethical responsibilities. And, if the allegations prove true, protect the public by revoking their licenses. So, the question is…
Which Trump administration lawyer most deserves bar discipline?
The Department of Justice understands that the profession itself is the last remaining check on its lawlessness. That’s why Pam Bondi just proposed a rule to circumvent clear statutory text and block state bar authorities from investigating any current OR FORMER government lawyer. Under the proposed rule, Bondi can unilaterally stop a state from probing a government lawyer’s ethical breaches and prevent that investigation indefinitely until the Justice Department itself chooses to allow the state investigation.
If you’d like to comment on this rule… here you go.
For now, we can satisfy our professional obligations by voting in a series of polls to crown a bracket champion.
Here’s how this works. We’ve seeded 16 current and former administration lawyers into a bracket with four regions. Each region is named after a Trumpworld legal luminary of the past. We pay homage to the legal minds whose professional — for lack of a better term, judgment? — inspired and continues to inspire this regime.
The regions are:
The Roy Cohn Region — Named for infamous Trump’s mentor. A man who managed to leave his despicable mark on the country as the actual bridge between Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump.
The Rudy Giuliani Region — From America’s mayor to disbarred with a detour through the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Never forget, indeed!
The John Eastman Region — The Clarence Thomas clerk behind Trump’s final January 6 stratagem.
The Stephen Miller Region — The man behind America First Legal is not, in fact, a lawyer. But the current shadow president never stopped him from treating the law as a hustle for attention.
Today, we unveil the first two regions today. One in this post, one in a post this afternoon. Tomorrow, we’ll roll out the other half of the bracket. Lawyers will advance based on reader polls, in which we ask you which lawyer is most deserving of bar discipline. You can define “most deserving” however you choose — severity of misconduct, brazenness, incompetence, or simply the gap between what they did and what the profession demands.
Voting is open until Monday at 7:59 p.m. Eastern.
THE ROY COHN REGION
The Simpsons parodied the old Paul Harvey biographical routine with the above clip in 1994 and it’s still dead on. Roy Cohn was scum. He was disbarred five weeks before he died, which was already 38 or so years too late.
(1) Pam Bondi vs. (4) James Percival
1. Pam Bondi, Attorney General of the United States (Stetson University College of Law)
Where do you even start? More than 70 lawyers and former judges — including two former justices of the Florida Supreme Court — filed an ethics complaint asking the Florida Bar to investigate whether Bondi pressured DOJ lawyers to violate their ethical obligations. The Florida Bar declined and the state supreme court rubberstamped a novel theory that constitutional officers are exempt from investigation while in office.
Meanwhile, Bondi fired career DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni for the sin of telling a federal judge the truth — that the government had erroneously deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Bondi said Reuveni failed to “zealously advocate” when the career lawyer declined to advance a knowingly false claim in court. The message Pam Bondi wanted every DOJ lawyer to understand: lie or be fired.
Just another day in Trump’s personal law firm. Oh, and there’s that lingering question about her brother’s string of successes against her DOJ.
And then there’s that aforementioned proposed rule. Bondi wants full authority to block investigations into government lawyers. The Fox News is indeed guarding the henhouse.
4. James Percival, General Counsel, Department of Homeland Security (University of Virginia School of Law)
You might not know his name, but you should. While a “senior advisor” at DHS, Percival was neck deep in the persecution — and that’s not a typo — of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Take it away, The New Republic:
“Can we say the following?” Percival asked, then listed several things he’d like the administration to say about Abrego Garcia, one being: “This guy is a leader of MS-13.”
“If we can get a declaration to that effect, yes,” Reuveni answered. This meant the assertion could not be made without a facts-and-evidence-based declaration from ICE on Abrego Garcia’s status.
Percival would later go on to ask if lawyers could assert to the court that Abrego Garcia was not “in immediate danger” in the El Salvadoran slave labor camp the Trump administration sent him to. On the one hand, there’s room for a manager at a distance to the facts to ask questions. On the other hand, this was all after everyone understood that Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador by mistake and the rules of professional responsibility do not cover spin.
(2) Ed Martin vs. (3) Brendan Carr
2. Ed Martin, DOJ Pardon Attorney / Weaponization Working Group (St. Louis University)
Ed Martin is a gift that keeps on giving, provided the gift you wanted was a shit sandwich of dubious professional judgment. Even the Republican-controlled Senate couldn’t stomach confirming him as D.C.’s U.S. Attorney — and when Judge Jeanine is your glow up, you know you’re in trouble. But that didn’t stop the administration from finding him work.
The D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel has now filed formal ethics charges against Martin for threatening Georgetown Law over its DEI curriculum while serving as interim U.S. Attorney. Georgetown’s Dean told him to pound sand. But the underlying conduct — using federal prosecutorial authority to coerce political concessions — is a textbook First Amendment violation dressed up in a demand letter.
When the disciplinary office came calling, Martin didn’t respond. Instead, he fired off ex parte letters to the chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals. While copying the White House Counsel. It’s sort of like getting pulled over for speeding and calling the governor.
Martin has spent his time in government service: dropping federal charges against his own former client, leaking grand jury material, and admitting he’d use DOJ to harass people he couldn’t actually charge. His attempted case against NY AG Letitia James was so bad he dressed up like Inspector Gadget and took pictures outside her home to intimidate her into making a deal… I guess?
3. Brendan Carr, FCC Chairman (Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law)
Carr sees his role as broadcasting’s chief regulator as cover for punishing political speech the president doesn’t like. Multiple bar complaints from the Freedom of Press Foundation and Campaign for Accountability allege Carr weaponized FCC authority to threaten broadcasters over their news coverage, pressured CBS into settling Trump’s personal lawsuit, and tried to get ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel. The latter move earned a state bar rebuke that the misconduct was — weirdly — too obvious to justify further action. Most recently, he’s threatened to revoke broadcast licenses over negative news coverage of the Iran war.
Ted Cruz — Ted Cruz! — called Carr’s conduct “dangerous as hell” and compared it to a mafia extortion scheme. When you’ve lost Ted Cruz on the question of whether something is too authoritarian, you’ve accomplished something genuinely remarkable.
Polls are open now. Voting will continue through Monday at 7:59 p.m. Eastern. Get in there and vote.
The post Which Trump Administration Lawyer Most Deserves To Lose Their License? An ATL Madness Bracket appeared first on Above the Law.