On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the disbarment of a prominent MAGA lawyer and right-wing judicial activist who has previously been accused of weaponizing the courts at the behest of President Donald Trump. Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman had appealed the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling last year, which imposed a two-year suspension on his law license, but the country’s highest court has maintained the punishment.
Klayman has been one of the foremost conservative legal activists since launching Judicial Watch in 1994, which has primarily targeted Democratic administrations and election officials to push a right-wing court agenda. Over the past decade, the organization and Klayman himself have played key roles in pushing Trump’s voter denial claims, targeting DEI policies and asserting MAGA conspiracy theories, and the group was found to be one of the top purveyors of false information regarding Covid.
Through it all, Klayman has been repeatedly sanctioned by various courts. He was banned for life from appearing before judges in California and New York due to his erratic in-court behavior. He’s previously been suspended for periods of 18 months by both the D.C. Court of Appeals and D.C. District Court over ethics concerns, and these previous disciplinary actions were taken into account by the Florida Supreme Court when it suspended him last November, ruling that he had broken ethical rules by representing a client for whom he developed romantic feelings. According to the Florida Supreme Court, “the record includes writings from Klayman in which he expressed to [a client] that his emotions had rendered him nonfunctional as a lawyer,” and the court also found that he’d engaged in “a pattern of misconduct,” “bad faith obstruction of disciplinary proceedings,” “submission of false evidence” and more, lending justification for a lengthy suspension. While he said at the time that he was “confident” the decision would be overturned, the U.S. Supreme Court has now upheld that disbarment.
The decision throws a wrench into a number of Klayman’s current cases. Most recently, Klayman has been representing MAGA influencer Laura Loomer in a defamation lawsuit against HBO and comedian Bill Maher. In September, he also filed suit against progressive influencer Hasan Piker seeking $150 million in damages under claims he’s incited violence against Jewish and Christian Zionists. Piker was quick to respond to the news of Klayman’s disbarment, posting, “Isn’t this the guy who was suing me for antisemitism for like a billion dollars?!” Many other courtwatchers celebrated the ruling. “This is a beautiful precedent,” declared one, adding, “More of this please.” And another summed up the sentiments among many, asserting, “Couldn’t have happened to a griftier guy.”