Lawyers for President Obama’s Department of Justice have been ordered to take ethics classes because they misled a judge and opposing counsel on implementation of Obama’s executive action on immigration, the Washington Examiner has reported.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, declared that the lawyers, who were arguing for President Obama’s November, 2014, executive order on immigration, were being “intentionally deceptive” about its implementation.
“Justice Department attorneys misled the court about when the Department of Homeland Security would begin implementing President Obama’s executive order granting ‘deferred action’ to illegal immigrants whose children are citizens,” The Examiner stated.
Their actions deceived 26 states who had sued the federal government over Obama’s executive order, which gave what critics call “amnesty,” or protected legal status, to several million illegal immigrants. Justice lawyers told Judge Hanen’s courtroom that implementation of Obama’s order would not be implemented until February 18, 2015. But it was later revealed that the Department of Homeland Security had already been implementing portions of it as far back as 2012, and telling illegal immigrants that they could stay in the country. Whether or not Obama was aware of this is not known.
#BreakingNews Judge Orders Ethics Classes for ‘Deceptive’ DOJ Attorneys: (Washington Examiner) – A fede… https://t.co/khaj2hDnMF #rome
— CryptoScarface (@DJROMANROXFORD) May 20, 2016
“Such conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word ‘Justice,’” Hanen wrote in his ruling .
Texas judge blasts Justice Department lawyers in immigration case, suggests ethics classes https://t.co/x0KtGbHPoc pic.twitter.com/a4kkK7LEMa
— UPI.com (@UPI) May 20, 2016
“[DOJ] has now admitted making statements that clearly did not match the facts,” he continued.
“This court would be remiss if it left such unseemly and unprofessional conduct unaddressed.”
Wow. Judge hearing Obama immigration case orders DOJ’s DC lawyers – like, all of them – to attend ethics training. pic.twitter.com/ZJMsRUwPzk
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) May 19, 2016
As a form of punishment, Judge Hanen ordered that if the judges wish to try cases in any of the 26 states that he says they deceived, they must first take at least three hours of ethics classes per year, which he said “should not be too cumbersome,” The Examiner reported.
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Judge Hanen apparently considered striking down the government’s pleadings. He did not, however, only because the Supreme Court took the case, and already heard oral arguments in April.
“Striking the government’s pleadings would not only be unfair to the litigants,” Hanen wrote, “but also unfair, and perhaps even disrespectful, to the Supreme Court as it would deprive that Court of the ability to thrash out the legal issues in this case.”
Did DOJ attorneys lie to a federal judge about Obama immigration plans? – Christian Science Moni… https://t.co/RVBMIV9q5N #immigration
— Amarjot Singh (@Canadavisa101) May 20, 2016
Judge Hanen was nominated for the federal judiciary in 2002 by President George W. Bush, and was confirmed in the U.S. Senate by a unanimous, 97-0 vote, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s web page .
Obama’s Justice Department “strongly disagrees with the order,” Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush told UPI .
Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said that the ruling is “the latest of a long line of outrageous, outsized orders from this court.”
President Obama issued the executive order shortly after the 2014 Congressional elections. It gave temporary legal status to millions of illegal immigrants,” the Washington Post reported at the time.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on this case before its break this summer.
What do you think? Did the Justice Department act deceptively in defending President Obama’s executive order?
[Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
