Back in 2014, the Obama administration (Department of Homeland Security) announced they wanted to issue extended work permits to 100,000 undocumented immigrants, so they could stay in the U.S. A legal action was taken by 26 states to block Obama’s directive. Obama went ahead and issued the permits in defiance of the court’s ruling in February 2015 to temporary block the executive order. A federal court judge deemed this defiance as unethical conduct.
Now steps in U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Scott Hanen, Brownsville Texas. Obama’s Department of Justice got more than a tongue lashing in the Judge’s 28 page decree.
“The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has now admitted making statements that clearly did not match the facts. It has admitted that the lawyers who made these statements had knowledge of the truth when they made these misstatements.”
In addition to refusing to accept the DOJ’s excuse that defying one of his judicial orders was a mistake, Judge Hanen barred several DOJ lawyers from his courtroom. He also ordered every Washington DC DOJ attorney to take a legal ethics course. Judge Hanen also ordered Attorney General Loretta Lynch to provide a “comprehensive plan” on how to “prevent this unethical conduct from ever occurring again.”
“The misconduct in this case was intentional, serious and material,” wrote Judge Hanen in his order. “In fact, it is hard to imagine a more serious, more calculated plan of unethical conduct.”
“Clearly, there seems to be a lack of knowledge about or adherence to the duties of professional responsibility in the halls of the Justice Department,” Hanen wrote in his 28 page order.
Quoting the movie “BRIDGE OF SPIES” (DreamWorks 2015), Judge Hanen gave an example of what it means to play by a rulebook:
FBI Agent Hoffman: Don’t go Boy Scout on me. We don’t have a rulebook here.
Attorney James Donovan: You’re Agent Hoffman, yeah?
FBI Agent Hoffman: Yeah.
Attorney James Donovan: German extraction?
FBI Agent Hoffman: Yeah, so?
Attorney James Donovan: My name’s Donovan, Irish, both sides, mother and father. I’m Irish, you’re German, but what makes us both Americans? Just one thing…the rulebook.
We call it the Constitution and we agree to the rules and that’s what makes us Americans. It’s all that makes us Americans, so don’t tell me there’s no rulebook…
