Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance – Conduct Unbecoming – August 19, 2025
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
Conduct Unbecoming
Joyce Vance, Aug 19, 2025This is a real post from the U.S. Department of Justice account on Twitter.
It’s an apparent response to the sandwich throwing incident, which, while technically an assault, is an insufficient provocation for the Justice Department to threaten to “come after” any protester who touches an agent.
One of DOJ’s most important touchstones at DOJ is exercising judgment and acting with restraint—taking time to assess situations and drawing on the collective expertise of generations of skilled lawyers to find the right solution to difficult problems. Above all, the focus is on justice and fairness, and ensuring that people’s rights are protected. That Justice Department appears to be dead, or at least in a coma.
The Justice Department is the only cabinet-level agency whose name is a moral virtue. I say that a lot because I think about it a lot. Getting it right isn’t just a job, it’s essential to protecting our democracy and fulfilling the oath we all take to uphold the law. It’s a serious matter, that oath, or at least it was when we took it.
As attorney general, Pam Bondi knows that the use of force by law enforcement is governed by the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures, which includes a ban on excessive force. Federal agents can use force to detain someone, but local police officers are limited to force that is “objectively reasonable” under the circumstances and proportionate to the situation. This requires weighing the severity of the crime, the threat the individual poses, and whether they are actively resisting. So, no, DOJ has no business threatening people for exercising their First Amendment rights. The use of excessive force is a violation of the law and can have serious consequences.
The Fourth Amendment also applies to ICE agents engaged in immigration enforcement, and DHS regulations forbid agents from making threats or physically abusing people to force them to make a statement or waive their legal rights.
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