Condemning the Indictment of Lambda Legal Attorney Carl Charles

Rule of Law Facts & Resources

The New York City Bar Association (“City Bar”) condemns the U.S. Department of Justice’s felony indictment^[1] charging Lambda Legal attorney Carl Charles with making a “false material declaration” during a judicial inquiry. The inquiry,^[2] led by three Alabama district court judges, began in 2022 and concerned whether Mr. Charles and other attorneys had engaged in “judge shopping” in the course of challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The inquiry itself appears to have been highly unusual.^[3] The indictment targeting Mr. Charles is even more problematic.

The indictment stems from U.S. District Judge Liles Burke’s February 25, 2025, order concluding the inquiry.^[4] Judge Burke found that Mr. Charles was intentionally dishonest when he initially denied calling the chambers of a different judge to whom the plaintiffs’ counsel had sought to have the case challenging the ban assigned as a related case.^[5] In his order, Judge Burke publicly reprimanded Mr. Charles and imposed a $5,000 fine.^[6] And while he made “no findings of perjury,” he referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama “to investigate whether Mr. Charles ha[d] engaged in any criminal conduct.”^[7]

The panel’s report indicates that during the inquiry, Mr. Charles initially said he did not call the judge’s chambers, but then, after further questioning, apologized and stated that he did make the call.^[8] The indictment does not state that Mr. Charles corrected the record within minutes.^[9] Further, the indictment mentions neither that Mr. Charles had no advance notice that the related case designation and phone call would be subjects of the inquiry^[10] nor that he indicated that he was very nervous and was trying to be as forthright as possible.^[11] Additionally, at no point during the inquiry did the court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or the three-judge panel find the call to be improper [12] in which case Mr. Charles’s initial statement about the call was immaterial.

Lambda Legal has forcefully challenged the indictment’s characterization of the events, “which ignores the fact that the routine phone call at issue was acknowledged by the court to be entirely legal and proper.”^[13]  Multiple media reports have chronicled the troubling multi-year inquiry preceding the indictment and drawn parallels to the mistreatment of civil rights lawyers^[14] by judges during the civil rights movement.^[15]

As contemplated by rules of professional conduct, except in extraordinary situations, the judicial tribunal and bar disciplinary bodies should address alleged misconduct by lawyers appearing before the tribunal.^[16] Judge Burke found that Mr. Charles committed misconduct and imposed a heavy sanction on him. The City Bar takes no position on the propriety of this finding or sanction, but the matter should have ended there, subject to Mr. Charles’s right to appeal. Misstatements by attorneys to tribunals must be taken seriously. However, the indictment of Mr. Charles is an extreme departure from normal practice, especially because Mr. Charles corrected the statements before they could have had a material impact on the inquiry. ^[17]

In addition to the personal toll imposed on Mr. Charles, who is transgender, we are concerned that this irregular indictment appears[18] calculated to chill advocates’ efforts to litigate in support of transgender rights and other civil rights claims. It comes at a time when the Trump administration’s systematic targeting of transgender people’s rights is accelerating^[19] through inflammatory actions, rhetoric and policies.[20] In short, the prosecution of Mr. Charles appears to be part of an ongoing effort to dissuade lawyers from representing members of disfavored groups and from supporting disfavored causes.[21]

The City Bar urges the Executive Branch to adhere to the rule of law, cease warping the Department of Justice’s missions and functions by targeting individuals and groups the administration politically disfavors, and refrain from attempting to criminalize attorneys who advocate on behalf of transgender people and other marginalized communities.

See more statements on the City Bar’s Rule of Law Facts & Resources page here.

About the Association
The mission of the New York City Bar Association, which was founded in 1870 and has over 20,000 members, is to equip and mobilize a diverse legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice in support of a fair society and the public interest in our community, our nation, and throughout the world. www.nycbar.org.