More than 100 retired judges accused the Department of Homeland Security’s top lawyer of violating ethics rules after he posted a “Worst of the Worst” list on social media, attacking federal jurists who have ruled against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
DHSco general counsel James Percival has drawn backlash from the legal community over a series of social media posts titled “Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition.” The posts are a play on DHS’ practice under President Donald Trump of highlighting what it calls the “worst of the worst” migrants who have been arrested or deported.
“These statements, and similar statements Mr. Percival has made about other sitting judges, not only constitute serious professional misconduct, but they threaten the rule of law and increase the risk of violence against judges,” Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy and 128 former federal and state judges wrote in a Tuesday ethics complaint to the Florida Bar, where Percival is registered.
Increased threats of violence against federal judges have become a primary concern among the federal judiciary in recent years, but Trump and his administration have continued to attack judges over their immigration-related rulings.
In rare testimony before the House and Senate appropriations committees last month, Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan raised alarm bells over the safety of the judiciary in a politically charged landscape. The high court earmarked about $14.6 million of its $228 million fiscal 2027 budget request for projects aimed at bolstering the security of its justices.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, who was cited in the complaint, called Percival’s posts a “public ‘target list’” of federal judges in the ethics complaint, warning that “criticism of the justice system is healthy. But this is not criticism. This goes beyond criticism. This is an attack, a distortion of the work of our judges.”
Percival named four federal judges, all appointed by Democratic presidents, in a July post that was the primary focus of the ethics complaint. The complaint also cited federal district Judge Esther Salas, whose son was shot to death in her home in 2020 by a lawyer who was upset with a court ruling. Salas, U.S. district judge in the District of New Jersey, said Percival’s actions were “putting a bullseye on [these judges].”
“According to the United States Marshals Service, there have been over 402 threats made against individual Federal judges in fiscal year 2026 alone. In total, 299 out of approximately 2,500 judges, or nearly 12% of all active judges, received a threat during that period. Threats against judges have greatly increased over the last decade, driven mostly by political disagreement,” the complaint said.
The post DHS lawyer faces ethics complaint for ‘worst of the worst’ judges list appeared first on MS NOW.
