U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams's decision to refer Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar and to forward disciplinary complaints against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward has drawn sharp criticism from legal professionals across the political spectrum.
Williams's ruling, which stemmed from a case involving a settlement that shielded Donald Trump and his businesses from certain federal tax audits, suggested that bar associations should consider sanctioning lawyers involved in the proceedings. This move has led some legal scholars to express concern that it could lead to the improper targeting of attorneys for advancing legal arguments, even in unfavorable cases.
Constitutional law professor Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, who identifies as liberal, stated that he refuses to teach that such judicial referrals are acceptable. "As a law professor, attorney and former judicial law clerk, I refuse to teach the former or accept the latter," Gonzalez-Rivera told Fox News Digital. He argued that the judge's order "effectively sanctions the bringing of debatable, if losing, arguments in high-stakes first impression cases" and that it would be unreasonable to recommend professional punishments for lawyers on the losing side of significant legal battles.
Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official, echoed these concerns, cautioning that the practice, if normalized, could damage the legal profession. "This nonsense has to end. The State and local bars are not the superior officers of or the equivalent of a school-marmish national Principal's Office that sits in supervision of two highest-ranking leaders of the Justice Department," he wrote. Clark suggested that such actions could deter future Republican lawyers from serving in the Justice Department and lead to a monopolization of power by those with liberal leanings. He also proposed that the DOJ could issue regulations to preempt state and local bar actions that he characterized as "weaponization."
Williams formally referred Brito to the Florida Bar, finding that he advanced the case in "bad faith" and used Trump's lawsuit to give legitimacy to a legally baseless settlement. She also flagged potential conflicts of interest for Blanche and Woodward due to their prior representation of clients who could benefit from the settlement. The judge ordered her opinion to be sent to the bar associations overseeing Blanche and Woodward.
Jay Town, former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, called the judge's actions "absurd," stating that federal judges should not attack DOJ lawyers based on their "political viewpoints."
Williams, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, previously issued a ruling against a Florida detention center for illegal immigrants, which was later overturned by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Conservative lawyer Mike Davis has reportedly called on the 11th Circuit to overrule Williams's latest decision.
Clark also suggested that the timing of the referral, particularly for Blanche, was strategically chosen to occur before a potential confirmation hearing for a higher office, describing it as "flatly unconscionable non-judicial conduct."