WASHINGTON (AP) — A court official has dismissed a Justice Department complaint accusing a federal judge of “hostile and flagrant” misconduct during hearings in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military.
The complaint accused US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC, of improperly questioning a government attorney about his religious beliefs and attempting to embarrass the attorney with a rhetorical exercise during a February hearing.
In a September 29 order that was not made public until Monday, Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the complaint. Srinivasan said that a motion to recuse Reyes would have been the appropriate means for the Department of Justice to challenge her impartiality and seek her removal from the case.
The department did not explicitly request Reyes’ removal from the transgender troop litigation. And it did not file a petition for a review of the Chief Justice’s order, which did not reach any conclusion on the merits of the allegations of the complaint.
“If a party who believes that a judge’s conduct in a case raises serious questions about his impartiality were to press his concerns in the ordinary way — by seeking his recusal in the case itself — the standards for resolution of the matter are well established,” Srinivasan wrote.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Tuesday. Reyes declined to comment on the chief justice’s order or the department’s complaint.
The complaint was brought by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff at the time, Chad Mizelle, who has since left the department. Mizelle argued that Reyes’ conduct “compromised the dignity of the proceedings and demonstrated potential bias.”
“When judges show apparent bias or treat the lawyer with disrespect, public confidence in the judicial system is undermined,” he wrote.
Mizelle’s complaint cited an exchange in which Reyes asked a government lawyer: “What do you think Jesus would say to a group of people who are so worthless, so worthless that we won’t let them into homeless shelters? Do you think Jesus would be, ‘Dance me’?” The lawyer responded by saying, “The United States is not going to speculate on what Jesus has to say about anything.”
The complaint also refers to a rhetorical exercise about discrimination. Reyes talked about changing the rules in her courtroom to ban University of Virginia law school graduates from appearing before her because they are all “liars and have no integrity.” She instructed the government lawyer, a graduate of the school, to sit down before calling him back to the podium.
Reyes was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Trump and his Republican allies have mounted a series of escalating attacks against the federal judiciary since the start of his second term.
Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order says without presenting evidence that the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in his personal life” and is detrimental to military readiness. It took Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to issue a revised policy.
Six transgender people who were active duty members and two other actors seeking to join the military sued to challenge Trump’s order. Reyes blocked enforcement of the order in March, ruling it likely violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. A federal judge in Washington state also blocked enforcement of the order.
Reyes agreed to suspend her order pending the government’s appeal, which has not yet been resolved. But the US Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to ban transgender people from the military in the meantime.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.