rump's scheme: coming for the lawyers

[struggle4progress]

... This week, they announced they are moving to sanction Joshua Schroeder, an immigration and IP lawyer in LA, for his pro-bono immigration work.

[struggle4progress]

1. DOJ moves to sanction lawyer who took pro bono deportation case

By Josh Gerstein
08/06/2025 08:38 PM EDT

The Trump administration is escalating its efforts to punish lawyers whom it sees as obstacles to the president’s agenda.

The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to impose “substantial monetary sanctions” on a California lawyer who briefly halted but ultimately failed to block the deportation of an immigrant from Laos who pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the 1990s ...

Legal experts described the sanctions motion against Schroeder, which hasn’t been previously reported, as highly unusual. DOJ brought the disciplinary action after Schroeder asked federal judges to stop the deportation of his client, Vang Lor. In emergency court papers seeking to block the deportation, Schroeder cited the administration’s aggressive effort to expel other foreigners under the Alien Enemies Act, and he argued that his own client might be unlawfully ensnared in that effort ...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/06/justice-department-sanctions-immigration-lawyer-00496886?nid=0000018f-3124-de07-a98f-3be4d1400000&nname=politico-toplines&nrid=03d1f05f-e28d-4b78-a0e1-0f23d0a1999b

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Trump hates lawyers

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I'm a regular pro bono attorney.

In case you haven't considered it before, let me tell you what it entails.

You usually take "St. Jude's cases," i.e. cases that seem so hopeless (but with merit) that most attorneys refuse to take them. You represent the client/the case on the basis of fortifying the legal justice system and to help a client who will be screwed if someone doesn't go to court for him/her/it.

Of course, your client has no money. Not only do you not make any compensation, but you often end up spending your own money to go to court, let alone to keep the case going. I mean expenses like copying, postage, time away from paying clients, paying witnesses, Discovery, etc.

I've had pro bono cases where I kept a client out of jail (who was looking at 15 years), another client who was going to lose her license to be a nursing assistant, another client who was going to have her parental rights terminated with her five children being adopted by the foster family, a singing society whose treasurer embezzled almost $20,000. None of these clients had any money.

I can't imagine being sanctioned for doing the right thing. As a solo practitioner, I can't be fired or told to refuse these kinds of cases -- or my firm can't be threatened by Trump for any or no reason.

I see this kind of sanctioning as a violation of Gideon v. Wainwright, where SCOTUS (Warren Court) in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Hugo L. Black, the Court held that it was consistent with the Constitution to require state courts to appoint attorneys for defendants who could not afford to retain counsel on their own. The Court reasoned that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel is a fundamental and essential right made obligatory upon the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the right to the assistance of counsel in all criminal prosecutions and requires courts to provide counsel for defendants unable to hire counsel unless the right was competently and intelligently waived. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1962/155