Overview
- More than 130 retired federal and state judges filed a formal complaint with the Florida Bar accusing James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security general counsel, of professional misconduct for posts about federal judges.
- The filing focuses on a 'Worst of the Worst' social-media post and later commentary that criticized judges for rulings on immigration policy and Temporary Protected Status.
- The complainants say Percival mischaracterized key aspects of court orders and wrongly accused Judge Allison Burroughs of deliberately slowing scheduling to delay DHS compliance.
- The document cites Florida Rule of Professional Conduct 4-8.2(a), which bars lawyers licensed in Florida from making false or recklessly false statements about a judge's integrity, and asks the bar to investigate.
- The matter is at the complaint stage with the Florida Bar and could prompt an ethics investigation that clarifies how far senior government lawyers may go in publicly criticizing judicial decisions.