Another serious blow to Trump executive order as judge smacks down DOJ quest to punish a 'reasonable' lawyer

After the DOJ cited President Donald Trump's enforcement bid to effort to punish an opposing lawyer successful court, a justice has not lone called that lawyer "reasonable" but besides rejected the government's sanctions question "with prejudice," truthful it can't beryllium brought again.

Chief U.S. District Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood, a George W. Bush appointee successful the U.S. territory of Guam, issued a 14-page order Monday that recovered California lawyer Joshua Schroeder "did not knowingly oregon recklessly rise frivolous arguments" connected behalf of Vang Lor successful habeas cases.

"The tribunal further finds that Mr. Schroeder did not person an improper intent successful filing the petition oregon immoderate of the related motions," the justice said. "Mr. Schroeder worked successful an expedited mode successful an effort to champion sphere his client's rights. While his filings could person been much diligently prepared, amended articulated, and much intelligibly organized, the tribunal does not find that this is 1 of those exceptional circumstances that warrant sanctions[.]"

As Law&Crime reported successful August 2025, erstwhile the DOJ filed its sanctions motion, the authorities claimed Schroeder acted "in atrocious faith, unreasonably and vexatiously multiplied proceedings by maintaining positions without bases successful information and law" to effort to halt his lawsuit with a decades-old attempted execution rap from being deported to Laos.

Specifically, the DOJ said it was ne'er existent that the authorities was removing Lor from the U.S. pursuant to Trump's Alien Enemies Act (AEA) proclamation, which applied to Venezuelans. The DOJ surmised that Schroeder submitted "patently meritless filings successful 3 abstracted courts" for the "improper" intent of delay.

The question followed done connected Trump's bid to then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, directing the AG to "seek sanctions against attorneys and instrumentality firms who prosecute successful frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States oregon successful matters earlier enforcement departments and agencies of the United States."

While the DOJ is actively appealing to salvage the enforcement bid as applied to instrumentality firms, its run for "substantial monetary sanctions" against an idiosyncratic lawyer has deed a partition too.

Tydingco-Gatewood did not hold that Schroeder's representations astir the AEA's imaginable exertion to Lor were baseless nether the circumstances. Rather, she saw him arsenic a "reasonable" and zealous advocate:

Although this tribunal and the tribunal successful the Northern District of Texas yet disagreed with counsel and concluded that this was a emblematic [Immigration and Nationality Act] INA removal based connected the grounds presented by the Government, the tribunal does not find Mr. Schroeder's arguments to beryllium wholly baseless oregon that helium did not behaviour a competent inquiry. Counsel relied connected circumstantial grounds and his ain nonrecreational acquisition to reason zealously connected behalf of his lawsuit due to the fact that helium hoped to sphere his client's close to owed process of the law. Considering the expedited quality of this lawsuit and the bully religion arguments presented by counsel, Mr. Schroeder's behaviour was reasonable.

Schroeder told Politico that it's "every lawyer's ethical work to combat vigorously for their clients adjacent erstwhile the lawsuit is hard and alleviation seems unlikely," and helium said helium was "relieved" the justice saw that's what happened.

"Chief Judge Tydingco-Gatewood's bid intelligibly states that my arguments were not meritless and were made successful bully faith," helium reportedly said.