A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to disqualify a lawyer who served in the department during the Trump administration from an immigration case, suggesting that the DOJ’s motion was motivated more by politics than legal concerns.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas said the government’s effort to boot the lawyer, Gene Hamilton, from the case was “a mere shot across the bow meant to blur the real legal issue before the court.”