DOJ appeals rulings that blocked Trump orders targeting major law firms
In a legal broadside against the federal courts, the Department of Justice on Friday appealed a series of rulings that blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to target major law firms.
Lawyers with the DOJ argued that the federal judges "bent over backwards" to invalidate the president's executive orders that sought to penalize law firms that employed or represented some of the president's adversaries.
"Courts cannot tell the President what to say. Courts cannot tell the President what not to say. They cannot tell the President how to handle national security clearances," the 97-page brief said.
The appeal marked a dramatic turnabout for the Trump administration, which earlier this week sought to drop the appeal before reversing course.
Last year, four different judges blocked the orders, which limited access to federal buildings, suspended security clearances and forced government contractors to disclose their work with the firms.
The Trump administration’s attempt to penalize four firms – Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale – stemmed from claims the firms representing clients like Dominion Voting Systems and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, or hiring attorneys associated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, had engaged in "weaponizing" the legal system.
While a group of nine firms agreed to settlements with the Trump administration to avoid being targeted -- agreeing to complete nearly a billion dollars of legal services in support of the administration’s causes -- the four firms brought the Trump administration to court and won.
"No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,'" U.S. District Beryl Howell wrote in a May order blocking the order against law firm Perkins Coie.
In a filing late Friday, the DOJ argued that each of the four judges erred in their judgements and unlawfully encroached on the president’s power. The attorneys argued that the executive orders were lawfully put in place to address national security concerns and racial discrimination related to the firms’ hiring practices.
"This appeal of those sweeping decisions is not about the sanctity of the American law firm; it is about lower courts encroaching on the constitutional power of the President to discuss and address invidious racial discrimination, national security risks, and other problems with certain law firms," the brief said.
