Trump allies launch a bid to take control of a powerful Washington legal group
www.nbcnews.com
Attorney General Pam Bondi's brother, Bradley Bondi, and a top deputy to Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for D.C., are vying for leadership roles at the D.C. Bar Association.

Summary

Bradley Bondi, brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Alicia Long, deputy to Ed Martin, Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, are running for president and treasurer of the D.C. Bar.

This raises concerns they could weaken disciplinary efforts against attorneys tied to the Trump administration. The D.C. Bar, with 120,000 lawyer members, is influential in nominating professionals for the body that investigates lawyer misconduct.

Pro-Trump officials could undermine crucial lawyer ethics guidance and enforcement, especially amid a very tense relationship between the Trump administration and bar associations.

Disciplinary actions and ethical complaints have already targeted notable Trump-linked lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    30·
    2 days ago

    Uh oh. It looks like they figured out the judiciary can still fuck them up unless they say they aren’t going to respect the constitution. This is a huge fucking deal, and it’s terrifying. This will be the immediate end of this country if this happens, so start talking about it with you friends and family and get them in the know.

    • takeda@lemm.ee
      5·
      2 days ago

      Could you elaborate more, I don’t think I understand this enough to talk to friends and family about it.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
        28·
        2 days ago

        The Bar Association is a private organization that essentially licenses all lawyers and judges in the country to be able to practice, very similar to the various medical boards that license doctors.

        Almost every state subscribes (there are like two or three Libertarian leaning states who don’t hard require it) to the Bar to enforce their requirements to allow lawyers to practice in their locales, so someone who just passed law school in New York needs to pass the NY Bar exam, and then they can practice law in NY. All lawyers and Judges need to maintain training to keep their Bar certification and prove they are staying up to date on major changes in their jurisdictions. if you are Disbarred (most people have heard this term), you lose the ability to practice law in your jurisdiction.

        Trump and his cronies have figured out the Judiciary isn’t going to just crumble to their fascist tactics, and so they’re trying to take control over the very organization that can decide who can and can’t practice law.

        Essentially, they’re trying to take control over the third branch of government to shake people down or remove people who aren’t going to bend the knee and be compliant. They didn’t expect this to be necessary, but they are adapting.

        Don’t like a judge? Disbarred.

        Don’t like the ACLU? Disbar them all.

        This needs to be stopped immediately.

        • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 days ago

          Each state manages its own bar rolls, enrollment in which licenses attorneys to practice law in that state.

          DC, not being a state, also has its own bar roll.

          Virtually all state bars rolls are managed exclusively by the Supreme Court of that state.

          You have to be licensed in a state to practice before a federal court, and then you can apply for enrollment in each federal court circuit.

          The ABA is a bar association, which is essentially a lobbying group, not a licensing authority. Each state also has its own association, and usually many associations. State association, county associations, young lawyers, black lawyers, Asian and Pacific islander, also many more associations by practice area, such as trial lawyers association or elder law association.

          The thing like 48 state participate in that you’re talking about is the administration of the multistste bar exam (MBE), which is a 200 question multiple choice test used by the bar examining committee of the state bar to decide who can join the rolls.

          So your post is almost entirely incorrect.

          The significance of the DC bar is that enrollment therein authorizes people to practice in DC, which generally includes all influential lobbying firms and all lawyers that practice at or before most federal administrative agencies since they are headquartered in DC. Further, it’s the local membership most commonly used to apply for membership in the bar of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the most influential court in the US after SCOTUS because it hears virtually all regulatory appeals, i.e., appeals taken from the adjudicatory decisions of federal agencies. This includes all patent and copyright appeals and all NLRB appeals, to name a couple of the important ones. Membership in the DC bar is also used to apply to practice before the FISA court, which is pretty influential.