Now we come to the final region in our bracket challenge. If you missed the prior regions, they’re still waiting for your votes here, here and here.
Voting is open until Monday at 7:59 p.m. Eastern.
THE STEPHEN MILLER REGION
Stephen Miller is not a lawyer. He is, however, arguably the most powerful person directing the administration’s legal strategy — a non-lawyer with extraordinary influence over the Attorney General and the Justice Department’s priorities. He can’t be disciplined by any bar because he doesn’t belong to one. Which means we can only honor him by making him the namesake for this region.
(1) Emil Bove vs. (4) HARMEET DHILLON
1. Emil Bove, former Principal Associate Deputy AG, now Third Circuit Judge (Georgetown University Law Center)
It’s really a whiff on our part that Bove isn’t headlining the Roy Cohn region since he even looks like Cohn.
Emil Bove — then the number three official at the DOJ — reportedly told senior lawyers at a key meeting that deportation planes under the Alien Enemies Act would be leaving for El Salvador “no matter what” and if any court enjoined the administration and purported to block the flights, DOJ lawyers should tell the courts “f*** you.”
The Campaign for Accountability filed a bar complaint, citing Bove’s apparent role in dropping the Mayor Eric Adams corruption investigation — a move that resulted in tons of career lawyers leaving the DOJ in protest. New York’s disciplinary body declined to investigate. And in a development that captures everything you need to know about accountability in this era, Bove was subsequently confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the federal appellate bench.
4. Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (University of Virginia)
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, under Dhillon’s leadership, has transformed into something closer to the Civil Rights Demolition Division, with more than half the division’s roughly 380 attorneys departing since she arrived.
While she’s taken a sledgehammer to the Justice Department’s statutorily mandated role in enforcing civil rights, there’s honestly not been a ton of ethical issues coming out of her office. Being maliciously bad at one’s job is not, per se, a disciplinary event. She did amplify a false identification of a shooting suspect after the Brown University shooting, which is an explicit no-no for a prosecutor.
She does get in hilariously catty Twitter fights as part of upholding the dignity of her office.
(2) Chad Mizelle vs. (3) John Sarcone
2. Chad Mizelle, former DOJ Chief of Staff (Cornell)
Chad Mizelle left the DOJ in September 2025 to begin a career of glazing Pam Bondi from the private sector. But his legacy at the department is secure.
Beyond the recruiting stunt, Mizelle had up to $250,000 in undisclosed conflicts of interest with companies the DOJ was actively suing or investigating, including Apple, Meta, and Visa. He didn’t file his required financial disclosure until after leaving government. A Revolving Door Project investigation found that his entanglements posed clear conflicts with his broad leadership role — and that for nine months, the public had no way to know about them. He was, in the group’s words, “reminded of recusal obligations” by an ethics official.
He also put out a call to recruit AUSAs lawyers over Twitter, which probably isn’t cause for discipline, but is an embarrassment for the profession.
3. John Sarcone, Pretend U.S. Attorney, N.D. NY (Pace)
Sarcone rounds out the bracket as another variation on the theme of installing loyalist hacks as U.S. Attorneys even if they aren’t, in fact, legally allowed to be U.S. Attorneys. The Campaign for Accountability filed a bar complaint against Sarcone alongside complaints against Habba and Halligan.
Sarcone has a lower profile than the other two phony U.S. Attorneys in the bracket, but he makes the list as a reminder that for every Halligan and Habba making splashy incompetent decisions, there’s a Sarcone quietly occupying positions across the federal system, carrying out the agenda without making as much noise.
Voting is open until Monday at 7:59 p.m. Eastern.
