DOJ lawyer slapped with sanctions as judge goes off on his unwillingness to comply with clear and unambiguous directive

Source: msn/Law & Crime

12h


A top California federal judge hit a DOJ attorney with sanctions after concluding that the overwhelming number of ongoing challenges to the legality of Trump administration immigration detentions was no excuse for repeated "failures" to comply with court orders. Chief U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley of the Eastern District of California announced that he fined DOJ attorney Jonathan Yu $250 for wasting the court's time and "undermin[ing] the orderly administration of justice" in the habeas corpus case of Eblis Alexander Yanez Tovar, comparable to a recent episode in Minnesota federal court.

In the four-page order, the judge recounted how he ordered Tovar's release from detention in Bakersfield on April 3 and ordered Yu to file a "notice certifying compliance" within three days. Instead, on April 7 — one day past the deadline for which there was no extension sought or granted — Nunley ordered Yu to explain "in writing" why he shouldn't be sanctioned. "The Court noted this is not Respondents' counsel's first failure to follow this Court's orders," Nunley stated.

Court documents additionally said the petitioner was released without his passport and driver's license, detailing in an April 7 motion that "he had difficulty traveling back from Bakersfield to his home in Utah upon his release and he is likely to be rearrested by law enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security if traveling."

Once again, Nunley said, Yu was given a deadline of April 10 to provide a "status update," but that update did not come until three days later. Yu's eventual pitch against sanctions apparently rang hollow despite representing that he's handled "over three hundred immigration habeas cases" in a three-month span, and that some matters are more pressing than others in a "triage" scenario. Like judges in Minnesota, Nunley emphasized that it was the attorney's responsibility to comply regardless or seek an extension.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/crime/general/cannot-be-excused-doj-lawyer-slapped-with-sanctions-as-judge-goes-off-on-his-unwillingness-to-comply-with-clear-and-unambiguous-directive/ar-AA20YVch