Trump ATTACK BACKFIRES and LANDS Lawyer in ETHICS TROUBLE?!?

Legal AF’s Ray Brescia is by William M. Treanor, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Constitutional Law and Constitutional History and Dean Emeritus at Georgetown Law.  Dean Treanor led Georgetown Law for three terms, from 2010 until he stepped down to join the faculty on July 1, 2025.  In his final months as Dean, Treanor found himself at the center of an unprecedented constitutional standoff.  In February 2025, he received a letter from Edward R. Martin, Jr., who was then serving as the Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.  Martin demanded to know if the school had “eliminated all DEI from your school and its curriculum?”   Martin claimed his office would refuse to consider any applicant affiliated with Georgetown Law for employment or fellowships until the school eliminated such programming from its curriculum. Dean Treanor firmly pushed back against this government ultimatum.  In his written response, Treanor defended the law school’s First Amendment rights to determine what to teach and how to teach it, free from government control. Furthermore, he characterized Martin's threat as a clear constitutional violation and an attack on Georgetown's moral imperative and core mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution. The fallout from this extraordinary exchange has been severe. In March 2026, the D.C. Bar filed formal disciplinary charges against Ed Martin. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton Fox explicitly accused Martin of violating the First and Fifth Amendments, arguing that Martin used coercion in his official capacity to punish and suppress a disfavored viewpoint. Brescia and Treanor also discuss the recent effort by Attorney General Bondi to shield Department of Justice lawyers from state ethics investigations and Treanor explains why that, too, is unconstitutional. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgZJZZbnLFPr5GJdCuIwpA/join Become a member of the Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/20off Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595 Subscribe to the Intersection with Michael Popok podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection-with-michael-popok/id1818863274 Subscribe to Unprecedented with Michael Popok and Dina Doll podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unprecedented-by-legal-af/id1867023089 Subscribe to Court of History with Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-court-of-history/id1867022920