The Florida Supreme Court refused Monday to force the Florida Bar to investigate U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for alleged state ethics violations, denying a request made by dozens of lawyers and former Judges.
The court’s five-sentence rejection[1] sided with the Florida Bar — the overseer of the state’s legal profession — and state Attorney General James Uthmeier in finding that the 70-odd legal experts lacked standing to ask a state-level organization to investigate federal officials, even if they’re certified to practice law in Florida.
“Because petitioner has failed to show a clear legal right to the relief requested, he is not entitled to mandamus relief,” the brief denial reads, co-signed by five of the seven Florida Supreme Court Justices.
“I’m glad to report that the Florida Supreme Court rejected the attempted partisan lawfare against @AGPamBondi. Case dismissed,” Uthmeier celebrated on social media. In September, his Office had filed a brief defending Bondi and excoriating the petitioners for trying to force the Florida Bar to investigate her.
Bondi, 59, served as Attorney General for Florida from 2010 through 2018. In November 2024, she became one of a host of Floridians tapped by President Donald Trump to serve in his administration. Bondi was confirmed as U.S. Attorney General in February and, as the head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), she’s been in lockstep with Trump in cracking down on immigration[2], pushing to expand the death penalty[3], and working to prosecute[4] former enemies.
But her role hasn’t come without controversy.
In June, South Florida defense lawyer Jon May filed a complaint with the Florida Bar asking for an investigation into Bondi, accusing the DOJ chief of abusing her power by firing or forcing resignations of federal attorneys.
In his complaint alleging ethics violations, May pointed to three instances, the Miami Herald reported[5]: In February, multiple federal prosecutors in New York and Washington resigned after refusing to follow a DOJ order to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Weeks later, another federal prosecutor resigned rather than carry out orders from Trump officials to pursue charges that she claimed were not supported by evidence. In April, Bondi fired an immigration lawyer accused of “sabotaging” the Trump administration’s case over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
May said these examples showed that Bondi “ordered Department lawyers to do things those lawyers were ethically forbidden from doing, under threat of suspension or termination — or fired them for not having done so.”
Still, the Florida Bar dismissed May’s complaint a day after he filed it, noting that the organization doesn’t “investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.”
So May, joined by roughly 70 other lawyers, scholars and former Judges — including two retired Florida Supreme Court Justices — took his case to the Florida Supreme Court in July. He asked[6] the Justices to issue a writ of mandamus to the Florida Bar — a court order forcing a official or agency to do its job — to investigate the complaint against Bondi.
Florida’s legal officers, headed by DeSantis-appointee Uthmeier, pushed back on May’s case as an example of “partisan lawfare” in a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Florida Bar.