Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and Liberty University law professor, praised the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against D.C. bar disciplinary authorities, calling the action “about time” and arguing conservative attorneys have been unfairly targeted through politically motivated ethics proceedings.
The DOJ filed a complaint Wednesday against D.C. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton P. Fox III, the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, and the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the disciplinary proceedings against former Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark unlawfully intrude on executive branch functions and constitutional separation of powers.
According to the DOJ, the complaint seeks to nullify the D.C. Bar’s prosecution of Clark stemming from his legal advice and internal deliberations related to allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking during a segment of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Kline said the lawsuit was long overdue.
“Hallelujah,” Kline said. “One of the left’s strategies, and unfortunately it’s something that over the past half century that America has incrementally bought into, is to create these chokeholds of authority and power that can prevent you from exercising your profession or moving forward in a career.”
Kline argued that bar disciplinary systems have increasingly been used to pressure attorneys over ideological differences.
“They create an ideological capture, and they use those to conform thoughts and to punish speech or political ideas that differ from them,” he said.
Drawing on his own experiences in Kansas, Kline said he believed he faced similar treatment during investigations involving Planned Parenthood.
“I was a victim of that in Kansas,” Kline said. “I wish I had the support of a DOJ then like Jeff Clark has now.”
Kline described the disciplinary action against Clark as unprecedented because it focused on legal advice given to a client, which in Clark’s case, was the President of the United States.
“This is an attorney giving advice, and they are sanctioning him for the advice that he gave,” Kline said.
“It’s stunning that they think that they have such a hold on truth that they can define it and say that this advice should never have been given, and therefore you should not practice law,” he added.
Kline distinguished Clark’s legal advice from unlawful conduct, saying, “It’s not a case where somebody says, ‘Here’s my advice to you, go out and murder somebody.’ It is looking into the law and giving advice about an election.”
He went on to say that Clark’s position within the DOJ was rooted in seeking additional investigation into election concerns.
“Jeff Clark was concerned about it, and what he thought should happen is a thorough investigation to determine what happened,” Kline said. “That’s advice. That’s proper. There was certainly a basis in which you could offer that advice.”
The DOJ complaint argues the disciplinary proceedings violate both the Supremacy Clause and Article II of the Constitution by allowing judicially controlled bar authorities to regulate executive branch legal deliberations.
Kline said the case could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
“There is an analogous argument here, and that is that this is a violation of the separation of powers for the judiciary through its licensing of attorneys to reach into executive branch advice from executive branch counsel,” he said. “I think it’s a darn good argument.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X.
Photo Jeff Clark” by Jeff Clark.
