Judge Liles Burke appears eager to sanction LGBTQ civil rights lawyers
A Friday order that some lawyers turn over a document prepared in the early days of the Alabama judge-shopping "inquiry" strongly suggests Burke has made up his mind.

CHRIS GEIDNER
JUN 16, 2024



A Friday order suggests that U.S. District Judge Liles Burke is disturbingly eager and ready to sanction at least some of the 11 attorneys involved in the LGBTQ civil rights litigation at the center of the Alabama judge-shopping “inquiry” that I’ve reported on extensively at Law Dork. ... The two-year investigation into the lawyers has raised as many, if not more, questions about the behavior of the federal judges in Alabama than it has about the lawyers involved — questions about the judges’ actions, the lack of due process they have given the lawyers, and the factual conclusions reached — but it is the lawyers who now face an apparent likelihood of sanctions if something doesn’t change.

There is, quite simply, no other way to read the June 14 order from Burke — the Trump appointee who prompted the investigation carried out by three other federal judges in Alabama — as he is closing in on hearings scheduled for the end of the month in which he has asked 11 attorneys why they should not face sanctions as a result of the investigation.

On top of everything else, the order — filed after close of business Friday, naturally — is a disingenuous attack on the lawyers that short-circuits those “show cause” hearings, with Burke drawing conclusions on Friday that make the show cause hearings more like show trials.

In Friday’s order, Burke never addressed some of the key issues raised by the lawyers in response to the accusations, including the fact that under Rule 41, plaintiffs have an unconditional right to dismiss a lawsuit before defendants take certain actions not at issue here. He also never addressed the lawyers’ continued questions about the lack of due process or lack of enunciated legal standards — let alone adherence to them — by the three-judge panel in reaching its October 2023 conclusions of misconduct.

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