U.S. appeals sweeping ethics ruling by Texas judge

SCOTUS Blog ^ | May 31, 2016 | Lyle Denniston

[Ray76]

Strongly disputing a federal judge’s power to issue a sweeping order to punish the government over ethical issues in the hard-fought case over federal immigration policy, the Obama administration began moving swiftly on Tuesday to block that order. It asked the judge to put the issue on hold, and promised an immediate appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The department argued on Tuesday that the part of his order forcing the government to hand over personal information about youths who had benefited from one of the changes in policy would affect about 50,000 individuals, and could undermine the confidence of undocumented individuals in communicating in private with the government over their status. It also argued that the broad new ethics mandate issued by the judge requiring Justice Department attorneys to get new ethical training every year for five years could affect some 3,400 attorneys and would cost about $8 million over that period, while interfering seriously with their work on government legal business.

[Ray76]

Hanen ordered "three hours of ethics training per year" (page 25). DOJ claims three hours would be "interfering seriously with their work on government legal business"

[Lockbox]

1. 50,000 individuals? The judge ordered the program to be on hold until after the trial. The DOJ said no one was processed under the program. Sounds about 50,000 lies.

2. The DOJ and this administration are now worried over spending eight million tax payers dollars? Sounds like number 50,001........

[Hulka]

Heck. . .that’s nothing, given all the mandatory sexual harassment, ethics and diversity training conducted each year in private industry.

For example, when with Boeing we had one full day a year for such “training,” and that means 150,000 people were non-productive that day. Talk about COST and interfering with business. . .

[SunkenCiv]

Strongly disputing a federal judge’s power to issue a sweeping order to punish the government over ethical issues in the hard-fought case over federal immigration policy, the Obama administration began moving swiftly on Tuesday to block that order. It asked the judge to put the issue on hold, and promised an immediate appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The department argued on Tuesday that the part of his order forcing the government to hand over personal information about youths who had benefited from one of the changes in policy would affect about 50,000 individuals, and could undermine the confidence of undocumented individuals in communicating in private with the government over their status.

[gwjack]

My memory was that he required the annual ethics training for those lawyers participating in the deception. I don’t think it was broad enough to amass 3,400 individual lawyers. Even so, most jurisdictions require lawyers to get ethics training annually. I think one of the flies in the ointment for the DOJ is that they conduct their own programs. Hanen ordered that those involved in deception (admitted solely for the purpose of that case) would get ethics outside the DOJ. I suppose, like many things, the lawyers in the DOJ think they are better than anyone else.

[Balding_Eagle]

Donald has already indicated that there is going to be some serious housecleaning in the judicial branch.

If they win this they better enjoy their win while they can, because it won’t last long.

[BenLurkin]

Ethics have been patently absent in Obama’s DOJ. 3 hours is hardly too much.

[txrefugee]

Hey, even a skin-flint like me would kick in a couple of bucks to pay for the ethical training of these affirmative action government lawyers. They obviously don’t have a shred of ethics or they couldn’t disregard US laws as they have.

[dhs12345]

Likewise and for me it was in ‘98. While Democrats were trying to downplay the Clinton sexual harassment trial and impeachment hearings. Very strange.

[Future Useless Eater]

Obama refused to honor the judge's "hold" on the amnesty and instead signed up 50,000 illegal aliens.

Now, Obama wants the judge to issue a "hold" on his own actions? How DUMB does he think everyone ELSE is?

BTW, What this judge did was absolutely brilliant!
If he had just fined 3000 attorneys for participating in deceiving the court, they would have just paid the fines using taxpayer dollars, and gotten off Scott-free.
But by forcing the gang-of-thousands to each burn some of their own time, it takes away a tiny bit of their freedoms, and forces them to think about their corrupt actions.

[SatinDoll]

“...forcing the gang-of-thousands to each burn some of their own time, it takes away a tiny bit of their freedoms, and forces them to think about their corrupt actions.”

Oh, I dunno...maybe being hung from lamp posts would affect the change, if not on themselves but on most everyone else.

[trebb]

Strongly disputing a federal judge’s power to issue a sweeping order to punish the government over ethical issues in the hard-fought case over federal immigration policy, the Obama administration began moving swiftly on Tuesday to block that order.

IOW - we had to lie, the judge was actually concerned about what the laws said and meant....