By Noreen Marcus, FloridaBulldog.org
Retired judges from across the nation who fear for their colleagues are using a Florida Bar complaint to turn a government lawyer’s inflammatory words against him.
The 128-judge coalition is pressing for an ethics investigation of James Percival, 40, general counsel to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency in charge of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. A Florida-licensed lawyer, Percival was chief of staff to Sen. Ashley Moody when she was the state’s attorney general.
Last month Percival drew the attention of right-wing media like Fox News by releasing a selective “worst of the worst” list of federal judges who questioned or blocked ICE raids and other DHS operations. He posted social media diatribes against those judges and others — all appointed by Democrats, the coalition’s Florida Bar complaint notes.
Here’s a sampling of Percival’s disparaging comments: Judges have “issued ‘crazy’ opinions, engaged in ‘judicial sabotage,’ were ‘micromanaging’ the [homeland security] department, had gone ‘rogue,’ and were engaged in ‘naked politics,’” says the complaint filed Aug. 19 by the nonprofit Democracy Defenders Fund. Peggy Quince, a former justice of the Florida Supreme Court, leads the coalition.
“It’s essentially putting a target on the backs of judges that this individual [Percival] disagrees with,” said Los Angeles lawyer Paul Kiesel, founder of Speak Up for Justice, a nonpartisan movement in defense of judicial independence. “It’s become clear to the legal community and to the courts that this is just another direct assault on the integrity of the judicial process.”
Speak Up for Justice is separate from the coalition but supportive because “part of our mission is the safety of judges and these messages are the exact opposite of that goal,” Kiesel said.
His group continually sounds the alarm about attacks on judges, notably Esther Salas of the New Jersey federal district court, whose 20-year-old son was killed and whose husband was badly wounded six years ago by an assassin posing as a delivery man.Serious threats to federal judges and their families spiked 60 percent, to a shocking 564 incidents, in fiscal 2025, according to data from the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
The Percival Bar complaint claims he violated a Florida rule of professional conduct that protects judges from personal attacks. Rule 4-8.2(a) states: “A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge” or other legal officer, juror or candidate for judicial office.
Percival’s social media messages resonated. Some of the comments on his posts are hateful, calling the judges “a left-wing lunatic, a political hack posing as a judge,” and “radicals in black robes.” Another comment repeated in the complaint is, “They need and deserve intimidation.”
Percival, who resides in Tallahassee, has said that “legitimate fact-based critiques of judges and their rulings are fair game in a free society.”
“That’s a correct statement,” Kiesel responded. “That’s not what this is about.”
ONLY DEMOCRATS PICK THE ‘WORST’ JUDGES
Judges of all political stripes have ruled against the DHS’s mass detentions and deportation policies more than 11,600 times during Trump’s second term, Politico reported. Percival could have compiled a nonpartisan “worst of the worst” list, but he zeroed in on judges chosen by Democrats instead.
One prominent name on the list is Maryland U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama-era appointee. Her rulings in the notorious case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia have foiled the government’s determined efforts to deport the construction worker and married father of three.
In March 2025 Xinis called Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador’s supermax terrorist prison “wholly lawless” and ordered the government to bring him back. The U.S. Supreme Court basically upheld her ruling by telling the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return.
Yet Percival’s social media post about Xinis said she “entered an order preventing his removal and then ordered him released on the basis that we had no plans to remove him. If that sounds crazy, it’s because it is!”
Percival’s statement “gravely mischaracterizes the facts,” the Florida Bar complaint says. “No objective facts suggest that the decision by Judge Xinis was ‘crazy’ or that she deserved to be called one of the ‘worst of the worst.’”
The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined lawyers for disparaging judges in fact-free statements. The Percival Bar complaint cites two cases in which the court suspended lawyers’ licenses for badmouthing judges in their cases.
In The Florida Bar v. Kelsay Patterson, decided in 2018, the court ordered a one-year suspension after Tampa lawyer Patterson accused a judge of showing bias toward Homestead city officials. He claimed they conspired against his client, a former deputy city manager who had sued the city and lost.
Also, in 2023 the court suspended Miami foreclosure lawyer Bruce Jacobs for 91 days in response to his written accusations against judges handling the appeal in one of his cases. Jacobs accused them of “acting illegally” by misinterpreting the law and declared “any court that protects the monopoly over the rule of law is a traitor to the constitution and should be tried for treason.”
PERCIVAL AND MOODY
So precedent suggests Percival’s statements about judges being the “worst of the worst” have a good chance of qualifying as sanctionable misconduct under Florida’s judicial protection rule.
But it can be hard to overcome procedural hurdles that prevent Bar lawyers from even opening investigations into politicized complaints. A completed investigation can lead to charges and, eventually, sanctions up to and including disbarment. Without investigation, a complaint fizzles.
The Florida Bar, an arm of the Florida Supreme Court, follows the court’s lead. And the current court, dominated by justices who owe their appointment to Gov. Ron DeSantis, adopted a policy that spared from Bar scrutiny his political allies Ashley Moody and Pam Bondi, the former Florida and U.S. attorney general.
The policy, which may wind up preventing a Percival ethics review, holds that a “constitutional officer” doesn’t have to endure investigation until after leaving office.
The coalition argues in its Bar complaint that the policy doesn’t apply to Percival. Still, it will be surprising if he doesn’t receive the same protection as his former boss Moody when she was attorney general.
One difference between Moody and Percival is that Moody has closer ties to Florida and more incentive to preserve a clean Florida law license for future use.
Moody is a fifth-generation Floridian from Plant City who attended the University of Florida for undergraduate and law school, then Stetson University in DeLand to earn a master’s degree in international law. Her Florida law license dates to 2001.
A native of Allentown, Pa., Percival graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has a law degree from the University of Virginia. During a gap between his college and law studies he worked in South America as a substitute teacher and missionary, according to his Federalist Society biography.
Percival didn’t obtain a Florida law license until 2019, when he went to work for Moody as her chief deputy solicitor general. Later he became chief of staff. He is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar since 2015.
Trump nominated Percival for DHS general counsel in March 2025. He was confirmed by the Senate and took office in December.
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