The Department of Justice Ignores Court Orders Because It Knows It Can
I've got the receipts to prove it.
The United States Department of Justice does not miss deadlines because it is confused. It does not file incoherent, late, non-responsive pleadings because it lacks lawyers. It does these things because it has learned, over time, that there are no consequences.
In my case, a federal judge issued a straightforward order. Respond within twenty-eight days after the federal government shutdown ended. The shutdown ended. The deadline passed. And the Department of Justice responded the way an entitled institution responds when it believes the rules are for other people.
They blew the deadline.
They did not ask for an extension.
They did not seek leave of court.
Instead, they filed a late submission that ignored the court’s instructions, mashed together two unrelated matters (one in Illinois and one in DC), and shifted the burden of sorting out their mess onto the judge and the opposing party.
That is not advocacy. That is not discretion. That is contempt disguised as paperwork.
This Is What Power Looks Like When It Is Not Afraid
If an ordinary litigant ignored a court-ordered deadline, the result would be swift and unforgiving. Dismissal. Sanctions. A lecture about respect for the process.
When the Department of Justice does it, the system pauses politely and waits.
That double standard is not incidental. It is structural.
The DOJ knows it cannot be punished the way citizens can. It knows delay costs it nothing while draining the time, money, and stamina of anyone challenging it. It knows judges are placed in an impossible position, forced to choose between enforcing discipline and tolerating dysfunction from the very institution charged with enforcing the law.
So the Department does what any unaccountable bureaucracy does. It gets sloppy. It gets lazy. It gets arrogant.
Deadlines become suggestions.
Court orders become optional reading.
Confusion becomes a tactic.
And then the DOJ congratulates itself for “defending the rule of law.”
Why This Case Is Stuck and Why That Is the Point
People keep asking why this case has not moved forward.
This is why.
The Department of Justice benefits from inertia. Every missed deadline pushes the cost onto the citizen. Every muddled filing forces more briefing, more motions, more expense. The goal is not to win cleanly. The goal is to outlast.
This is attrition as governance.
And it works precisely because most people cannot afford to fight the federal government indefinitely, especially when the government refuses to follow the same rules it enforces against everyone else.
The Bridge You Deserve, Not the One DOJ Wants You to Ignore
This is why I sent a fundraising email today. Not because I suddenly enjoy asking for money, but because forcing the Department of Justice to obey a federal court now requires hiring seasoned Washington, DC counsel who understand how to pin down agencies that rely on delay and procedural abuse. I have already used personal savings to keep this case alive. January fundraising totaled $1,200, compared to $7,500 last year. That gap is the difference between accountability and surrender. The DOJ is betting I will run out of resources before they are forced to comply. I am asking supporters to help prove them wrong.
Read the Filings. The Dates Do Not Lie.
All relevant documents are linked below. Read the court order. Read the deadline. Read what the Department of Justice filed instead.
Then ask yourself this.
What happens to a justice system when its most powerful actor does not fear judges, deadlines, or embarrassment.
Because an institution that cannot follow instructions, cannot meet deadlines, and cannot be bothered to correct its own errors is not administering justice.
It is daring the public to stop caring.
And that dare only works if people look away.
David B. Wheeler is President and Co-Founder of American Muckrakers and a candidate for Clerk of Superior Court in Mitchell County, North Carolina. His views are his own.
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