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ETHICS COMPLAINT

Florida Supreme Court Rejects LDAD’s Petition, Suspending Ethics Rules for Pam Bondi While She Is Attorney General

June 28, 2021

Oct 14, 2025

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Late yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court ruled LDAD and its coalition partners lacked a legal right to demand that the Florida Supreme Court require the Florida Bar follow its own rules and investigate claims that Attorney General Pamela Bondi has acted unethically.

“The Florida Supreme Court has effectively said that as long as Pam Bondi is the U.S. Attorney General, she is not subject to any discipline by the Florida Bar for violations of ethics rules,” said LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen. “In essence, this means that the highest-ranking lawyer in the Department of Justice need not comply with the same code of ethics that all other lawyers must follow.”

The ruling was responding to a filing made in mid-September to the Florida Supreme Court. That filing was made after the Florida Bar refused to investigate the detailed allegations set forth in a request for an investigation submitted by LDAD, the Democracy Defenders Fund, Florida attorney Jon May, Lawyers for the Rule of Law, and a group of 70 prominent attorneys, law professors, and former judges, asking The Florida Bar to follow its own rules and investigate and appropriately sanction Attorney General Pamela Bondi for serious professional misconduct.

“Our system of justice is built on the belief that no one is above the law — a phrase which, ironically, Attorney General Bondi loves to repeat. To say that an Attorney General cannot be held accountable during his or her tenure is to break with this basic tenet of the rule of law. It is counter to the intent of the Founders and dangerous,” said James W. Conrad, an LDAD volunteer and the principal author of the complaint and the subsequent mandamus petition.