{"id":142836,"date":"2026-01-28T17:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/28\/dont-hide-the-ball-judge-puts-dojs-lawyers-on-blast\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T17:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:23:03","slug":"dont-hide-the-ball-judge-puts-dojs-lawyers-on-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/28\/dont-hide-the-ball-judge-puts-dojs-lawyers-on-blast\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Don\u2019t Hide the Ball,\u2019 Judge Puts DOJ\u2019s Lawyers on Blast"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 is not a great time to be a government lawyer. They\u2019re just getting HAMMERED<\/a> by judges \u2014 over<\/a> and over <\/a>and over<\/a> and over<\/a> and over<\/a> again \u2014 for shoddy litigation practices<\/a> and outlandish legal arguments<\/a>. And maybe this is hard to believe, but it\u2019s happening again!<\/p>\n

Judge Roy Dalton Jr. of the Middle District of Florida is making it abundantly clear that lawyers pretending inconvenient law simply doesn\u2019t exist just doesn\u2019t cut it in federal court. Dalton issued a snippy order<\/a> warning U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Warner that sanctions may be coming their way. <\/p>\n

The underlying case involves one of the many habeas petitions challenging the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive position that nearly all noncitizens are subject to mandatory detention with no bond hearing. Dalton made clear that the government is allowed to push an unpopular legal theory. What they can\u2019t do is wish away contrary authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is free to advance an unpopular legal theory,\u201d Dalton wrote, \u201cbut its lawyers must make those arguments in a way that comports with their professional obligations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCite the contrary binding authority and argue why it\u2019s wrong. Don\u2019t hide the ball. Don\u2019t ignore the overwhelming weight of persuasive authority as if it won\u2019t be found,\u201d he admonished. He continued with this bodyblow of a line, \u201cAnd don\u2019t send a sacrificial lamb to stand before this Court with a fistful of cases that don\u2019t apply and no cogent argument for why they should.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 gotta smart. <\/p>\n

The government has until by February 9th to explain why they shouldn\u2019t be sanctioned, maybe they can argue this scathing order was punishment enough. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018Don\u2019t Hide the Ball,\u2019 Judge Puts DOJ\u2019s Lawyers on Blast<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

2026 is not a great time to be a government lawyer. They\u2019re just getting HAMMERED<\/a> by judges \u2014 over<\/a> and over <\/a>and over<\/a> and over<\/a> and over<\/a> again \u2014 for shoddy litigation practices<\/a> and outlandish legal arguments<\/a>. And maybe this is hard to believe, but it\u2019s happening again!<\/p>\n

Judge Roy Dalton Jr. of the Middle District of Florida is making it abundantly clear that lawyers pretending inconvenient law simply doesn\u2019t exist just doesn\u2019t cut it in federal court. Dalton issued a snippy order<\/a> warning U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Warner that sanctions may be coming their way. <\/p>\n

The underlying case involves one of the many habeas petitions challenging the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive position that nearly all noncitizens are subject to mandatory detention with no bond hearing. Dalton made clear that the government is allowed to push an unpopular legal theory. What they can\u2019t do is wish away contrary authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is free to advance an unpopular legal theory,\u201d Dalton wrote, \u201cbut its lawyers must make those arguments in a way that comports with their professional obligations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCite the contrary binding authority and argue why it\u2019s wrong. Don\u2019t hide the ball. Don\u2019t ignore the overwhelming weight of persuasive authority as if it won\u2019t be found,\u201d he admonished. He continued with this bodyblow of a line, \u201cAnd don\u2019t send a sacrificial lamb to stand before this Court with a fistful of cases that don\u2019t apply and no cogent argument for why they should.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 gotta smart. <\/p>\n

The government has until by February 9th to explain why they shouldn\u2019t be sanctioned, maybe they can argue this scathing order was punishment enough. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2026 is not a great time to be a government lawyer. They\u2019re just getting HAMMERED by judges \u2014 over and over and over and over and over again \u2014 for shoddy litigation practices and outlandish legal arguments. And maybe this is hard to believe, but it\u2019s happening again! Judge Roy Dalton Jr. of the Middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-Ixqi5s.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}