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human
[Pokemon Gold and Silver] Could Clair have been disbarred for refusing to give her badge to the player?

In the Johto Pokemon games, in 2 separate occassions, Clair outright refused to surrender the Rising Badge to the player, and only did when the Dragon Lair master threatened to inform her cousin Lance of this. What I wanna know is if Lance and the rest of the Pokemon League did find out, could Clair have been disbarred, like could she have lost her title as Gym Leader, or even be stripped of her Trainer's License?
gpt
Disbarred wouldn't be the right word, but she would definitely be stripped of her role as a gym leader for blatantly violating the league's rules. She'd still be a Pokémon trainer, but she would not be allowed to run a gym.

While this pertains to her characterization in the games, Clair would definitely be removed from her post as gym leader in the anime series as the League is a *lot* more strict and closely regulated. There's an actual Pokémon League Inspection Agency (or P.I.A.) in that series and there, it has a lot of power and authority over gym leaders. They not only make sure gym leaders are up to a suitable standard but also fall under the League's rules and don't unfairly dismiss opponents.

For example, during the second (Indigo) series of the anime, an inspector sent to see which of Dark City's prospective gyms vying to become official had *both* gyms banned and shut down because they had turned it into a full-blown gang war which made the civilians afraid of Pokémon trainers.

They later featured in a spin-off story featuring Misty called *Cerulean City Blues* where, after leaving Ash's team permanently, Misty has to rush back home because the PIA were cracking down on substandard gyms and her sisters left the Cerulean City Gym abandoned to go on a performing tour. Misty ends up being the de facto gym leader, afraid she'll lose her family's gym if she fails the inspection. But luckily, a kindly Nurse Joy who was passing through offers to help Misty get things up and running again.

Unfortunately, a group of one-off villains from Ash's journey, the Invincible Pokémon Brothers, ended up coming to the gym and making an official challenge against Misty, citing her inexperience in running a gym (among other things, there was a wild and feral Gyarados left behind which Misty was terrified of and couldn't train) to force her to hand it over and challenged her to a Pokémon fight, refereed by Nurse Joy.

The match went... poorly, to say the least. The challengers cheated during the challenge and were officially disqualified by Nurse Joy for using a variety of dirty tricks. Now, *these* guys were officially banned from being Pokémon trainers since they attacked the caged Gyarados as well as the crowd of spectators and Misty, who dived into the water to save Gyarados.

They were banned from ever running gyms and Misty, both injured and embarrassed about what happened, was left in resignation as she knew she couldn't pass the inspection when the inspector came. That was when Nurse Joy gave her a passing grade - *she* was the inspector the whole time and Misty's selflessness, compassion and skill meant she passed the inspection with flying colors.

And finally, there's the spin-off story about Brock where the PIA learn that Brock's younger brother was running the gym in Brock's absence. They were furious at both boys for the blatant disregard for rules, even beating Brock in a match to decide the gym's fate. She relented when she challenged Forrest, Brock's brother - he still lost, but managed to show great skill and managed to hold his own against a legendary Pokémon.