On Stinging Judicial Rebuke of DOJ Misconduct

"In one of the most devastating critiques I have ever read of the misbehavior of lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department, a federal judge has issued an order imposing sanctions in U.S. v. Texas, the immigration lawsuit filed by 26 states that is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas, which is the federal trial court where the lawsuit was originally filed, released a 28-page opinion on May 19 that takes the Justice Department and its lawyers to task for violating multiple ethics and court rules by intentionally misleading and lying to the court. ...

"Hanen lists the specific statements made by DOJ lawyers in court and on conference calls that were outright lies, and then he lists all of the applicable ethics rules that the DOJ lawyers violated. Those misleading statements put 'to rest any doubt regarding misconduct.' Hanen said the representations were made in 'bad faith' by DOJ lawyers and breached Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b), which makes such conduct sanctionable.

"The ethics and conduct rules require a lawyer to '(1) tell the truth; (2) do not mislead the Court; and (3) do not allow the Court to be misled.' According to Hanen, the 'Government's lawyers failed on all three fronts' because their behavior was 'intentionally deceptive.' In fact, said Hanen, 'it is hard to imagine a more serious, more calculated plan of unethical conduct.'"

— Hans A. von Spakovsky, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow

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