(WASHINGTON) — Federal judges in D.C. on Friday partially blocked two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump targeting the Jenner and Block and WilmerHale law firms — temporarily halting Trump’s attempts to punish prominent law firms associated with his political foes.
In a lawsuit brought by Jenner and Block, D.C. District Judge John Bates described Trump’s executive order — which aims to strip the firms’ attorneys of any security clearances they may hold and severely restrict any business they may have before the federal government — as “troubling” and “disturbing.” He said it targets the firm’s and its employees’ First Amendment rights and rights to due process.
Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, temporarily enjoined the administration from enforcing aspects of the order that seek to restrict government officials from engaging with officials from Jenner and Block, after he said the government failed to provide any substantive answers as to how employees from the firm threaten national security.
The judge said that attorneys representing Jenner and Block showed that they were likely being targeted on the basis of their protected free speech rights, and that they would suffer irreparable economic harm if it were fully implemented.
Later Friday, Judge Richard Leon also granted a temporary restraining order partially enjoining another executive order signed by Trump targeting the law firm WilmerHale.
Leon, also an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said several parts of Trump’s order clearly show “retaliatory actions based on perceived viewpoint” of employees of WilmerHale.
“There is no doubt this retaliatory action chills speech and legal advocacy, or that it qualifies as a constitutional harm,” Leon said in his written order, following a hearing late Friday.
Leon is now the third federal judge to largely accept arguments from law firms targeted by Trump that his orders are likely unconstitutional — and that if implemented, Leon said, WilmerHale “faces crippling losses and its very survival is at stake.”
Both law firms filed suit in D.C. federal court on Friday to block the executive orders — the same day another major law firm struck a $100 million deal to preemptively avoid a similar Trump executive order.
The lawsuits accuse Trump of engaging in a sweeping campaign to intimidate major law firms who have represented plaintiffs currently suing the administration, or who have represented or at one point employed those he dislikes.
The Trump executive order threatened their futures as well as “the legal system itself,” Jenner and Block said in its lawsuit.
“These orders send a clear message to the legal profession: Cease certain representations adverse to the government and renounce the Administration’s critics — or suffer the consequences,” the Jenner and Block suit said. “The orders also attempt to pressure businesses and individuals to question or even abandon their associations with their chosen counsel, and to chill bringing legal challenges at all.”
The two firms are the latest firms seeking to counter what has been a rapid onslaught by the White House seeking to target individual firms that have hired or otherwise represented Trump’s political enemies.
Meanwhile, Trump said on Friday that the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom struck a deal to avoid one of his executive orders by providing $100 million in pro bono work during the Trump administration — among other guarantees.
The move has sent shockwaves through the legal community. The White House is prepared to target more big law firms, sources tell ABC News, and there are ongoing discussions among top advisers on strategy associated with possibly entering into negotiations with more of them.
Legal scholars have said there is little legal precedent for Trump’s war on Big Law, which has created a chilling effect across the legal community, and most will certainly have a chilling effect on his opponents who will need legal representation against him.
The firms’ legal actions come on the heels of successful effort by the law firm Perkins Coie, which earlier this month secured a court order blocking similar executive action signed by Trump.
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