{"id":3991,"date":"2025-05-14T01:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=3991"},"modified":"2025-04-23T11:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:14:06","slug":"reprint-legal-ethics-and-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2025\/05\/14\/reprint-legal-ethics-and-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprint: Legal Ethics and the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution \u2013 not the White\u00a0House<\/h1>\n
\n
The U.S. flag flies above Department of Justice headquarters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Washington.
\nJ. David Ake\/Getty Images <\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cassandra Burke Robertson<\/a>, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to fire the Department of Justice<\/a> prosecutor leading an investigation<\/a> into the president\u2019s involvement in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

Since then, the DOJ has generally been run as an impartial law enforcement agency<\/a>, separated from the executive office and partisan politics.<\/p>\n

Those guardrails are now being severely tested under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, seven DOJ attorneys resigned, rather than follow orders<\/a> from Attorney General Pam Bondi to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was indicted<\/a> in September 2024, during the Biden administration, for alleged bribery<\/a> and campaign finance violations.<\/p>\n

One DOJ prosecutor, Hagan Scotten<\/a>, wrote in his Feb. 15 resignation letter that while he held no negative views of the Trump administration, he believed the dismissal request<\/a> violated DOJ\u2019s ethical standards.<\/p>\n

Among more than a dozen DOJ attorneys who have recently been terminated<\/a>, the DOJ fired<\/a> Erez Reuveni<\/a>, acting deputy chief of the department\u2019s Office of Immigration Litigation, on April 15. Reuveni lost his job<\/a> for speaking honestly to the court about the facts of an immigration case, instead of following political directives from Bondi and other superiors.<\/p>\n

Reuveni was terminated for acknowledging in court on April 14 that the Department of Homeland Security had made an \u201cadministrative error\u201d in deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, against court orders<\/a>. DOJ leadership placed Reuveni on leave the very next day.<\/p>\n

Bondi defended the decision, arguing that Reuveni had failed to \u201cvigorously advocate<\/a>\u201d for the administration\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a legal ethics scholar<\/a>, and I know that as more DOJ lawyers face choices between following political directives and upholding their profession\u2019s ethical standards, they confront a critical question: To whom do they ultimately owe their loyalty?<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
President Donald Trump speaks before Pam Bondi is sworn in as attorney general at the White House on Feb. 5, 2025.<\/span>
\nAndrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Identifying the real client<\/h2>\n

All attorneys have core ethical obligations, including loyalty to clients, confidentiality and honesty to the courts. DOJ lawyers have additional professional obligations: They have a duty to seek justice, rather than merely win cases, as well as to protect constitutional rights even when inconvenient.<\/p>\n

DOJ attorneys typically answer to multiple authorities, including the attorney general<\/a>. But their highest loyalty belongs to the U.S. Constitution and justice itself.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court established in a 1935 case<\/a> that DOJ attorneys have a special mission to ensure that \u201cjustice shall be done<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOJ attorneys reinforce their commitment to this mission by taking an oath<\/a> to uphold the Constitution when they join the department. They also have training programs, internal guidelines<\/a> and a long-standing institutional culture that emphasizes their unique responsibility to pursue justice, rather than simply win cases.<\/p>\n

This creates a professional identity that goes beyond simply carrying out the wishes of political appointees.<\/p>\n

Playing by stricter rules<\/h2>\n

All lawyers also follow special professional rules in order to receive and maintain a license to practice law. These professional rules are established by state bar associations and supreme courts as part of the state-based licensing system for attorneys.<\/p>\n

But the more than 10,000 attorneys<\/a> at the DOJ face even tougher standards.<\/p>\n

The McDade Amendment<\/a>, passed in 1998, requires federal government lawyers to follow both the ethics rules of the state where they are licensed to practice and federal regulations. This includes rules that prohibit DOJ attorneys from participating in cases where they have personal or political relationships with involved parties, for example.<\/p>\n

This law also explicitly subjects federal prosecutors to state bar discipline. Such discipline could range from private reprimands to suspension or even permanent disbarment, effectively ending an attorney\u2019s legal career.<\/p>\n

This means DOJ lawyers might have to refuse a supervisor\u2019s orders if those directives would violate professional conduct standards \u2013 even at the risk of their jobs.<\/p>\n

This is what Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote in a Feb. 12, 2025, letter to Bondi<\/a>, explaining why she could not drop the charges against Adams. Sassoon instead resigned from her position<\/a> at the DOJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations \u2026 because I do not see any good-faith basis for the proposed position, I cannot make such arguments consistent with my duty of candor,\u201d Sassoon wrote.<\/p>\n

As DOJ\u2019s own guidance states, attorneys \u201cmust satisfy themselves that their behavior comports with the applicable rules of professional conduct<\/a>\u201d regardless of what their bosses say.<\/p>\n

Post-Watergate principles under pressure<\/h2>\n

The president nominates the attorney general, who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

That can create the perception and even the reality that the attorney general is indebted to, and loyal to, the president. To counter that, Attorney General Griffin Bell, in 1978, spelled out three principles established after Watergate to maintain a deliberate separation between the White House and the Justice Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, Bell called for procedures<\/a> to prevent personal or partisan interests from influencing legal judgments.<\/p>\n

Second, Bell said that public confidence in the department\u2019s objectivity is essential to democracy, with DOJ serving as the \u201cacknowledged guardian and keeper of the law<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third, these principles ultimately depend on DOJ lawyers committed to good judgment and integrity, even under intense political pressure. These principles apply to all employees throughout the department \u2013 including the attorney general.<\/p>\n

Recent ethics tests<\/h2>\n

These principles face a stark test in the current political climate.<\/p>\n

The March 2025 firing of Elizabeth Oyer, a career pardon attorney with the Justice Department, raises questions about the boundaries between political directives and professional obligations.<\/p>\n

Oyer was fired by Bondi shortly after declining to recommend the restoration of gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a known Donald Trump supporter<\/a>. Gibson lost his gun rights<\/a> after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge<\/a> in 2011.<\/p>\n

Oyer initially expressed concern<\/a> to her superiors about restoring Gibson\u2019s gun rights without a sufficient background investigation, particularly given Gibson\u2019s history of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

When Oyer later agreed to testify before Congress in a hearing<\/a> about the White House\u2019s handling of the Justice Department, the administration initially planned to send armed U.S. Marshals officers to deliver a warning letter to her home, saying that she could not disclose<\/a> records about firearms rights to lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Oyer was away from home when she received an urgent alert that the marshals<\/a> were en route to her home, where her teenage child was alone. Oyer\u2019s attorney described this plan as \u201cboth unprecedented and completely inappropriate<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials called off the marshals<\/a> only after Oyer confirmed receipt of the letter via email.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Elizabeth Oyer, a former U.S. pardon attorney at the Justice Department, speaks at a Senate hearing on April 7, 2025, in Washington.<\/span>
\nKayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why independence matters<\/h2>\n

In my research, I found that lawyers sometimes have lapses in judgment because of the \u201cpartisan kinship,\u201d conscious or not, they develop with clients<\/a>. This partisan kinship can lead attorneys to overlook serious red flags that outsiders would easily spot.<\/p>\n

When lawyers become too politically aligned with clients \u2013 or their superiors \u2013 their judgment suffers. They miss ethical problems and legal flaws that would otherwise be obvious. Professional distance allows attorneys to provide the highest quality legal counsel, even if that means saying \u201cno\u201d to powerful people.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why DOJ attorneys sometimes make decisions that frustrate political objectives. When they refuse to target political opponents, when they won\u2019t let allies off easily, or when they disclose information their superiors wanted hidden, they\u2019re not being insubordinate.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re fulfilling their highest ethical duties to the Constitution and rule of law.\"The<\/p>\n

Cassandra Burke Robertson<\/a>, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution \u2013 not the White\u00a0House The U.S. flag flies above Department of Justice headquarters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Washington. J. David Ake\/Getty Images Cassandra Burke Robertson, Case Western Reserve University In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to fire the Department of Justice prosecutor leading an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1043,88,994,1042],"class_list":["post-3991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-ethics","tag-politics","tag-trump","tag-us-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3992,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions\/3992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}