DOJ Un-Drops Its Appeal Against Law Firms, Files Brief That Gets The First Amendment Exactly Backwards
On Wednesday of last week, I wrote a post about how the Trump administration had quietly given up defending its unconstitutional executive orders targeting law firms. The DOJ was dropping its appea…
So, finally about that 97-page brief that kicks off the appeal. It was filed by political appointees and not the career lawyers who would normally work at this level. (The same appointees who seemed fine with dismissal on last Monday.) That might account for the tone which is more "judges bad" and less "judges make mistakes."
My summary: "My Executive Orders always begin with a declaration of my personal animus behind this retaliation because I am governed by that and not the law. The courts are clearly wrong because you are not the boss of me. I can too revoke security clearances for this reason, because I'm pretty sure you told me so. Also, if I sic the DOJ on specific individuals I hate, that's not retaliation, that's just the DOJ doing law things. And it's unfair for the judges to stop me from kicking these bad, bad law firms out of court rooms and signed contracts because I didn't do that yet — just a written, signed order to do so. And if it helps to rule in my favor, you can ignore the part where I confessed this is all retaliation for political reasons and my hurt feelings."
See https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70694462/perkins-coie-llp-v-doj/ (2026-03-06)
Regarding the security clearance revocation, we have only the #DOJ brief, but it reads a bit more seriously than the rest. #snark #ExecutiveOrder #LawFirms #PerkinsCoie #JennerBlock #WilmerHale #WilmerCutler #SusmanGodfrey #Trump
In other news, #Trump has bullied various #LawFirms into promising millions of dollars of free services and at least four firms said no, and won in Federal District Court.
> Trump’s only Big Law victories so far have come outside the courtroom. Nine top law firms ... reached agreements with Trump to provide at least $940 million worth of pro bono services collectively to avoid executive orders.
Last Tuesday, a day after saying in Appellate Court that they planned to abandon their appeal, Trump's DOJ reversed course.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70694462/perkins-coie-llp-v-doj/
> The administration told a court on Monday that it was abandoning its defense of executive orders targeting the firms. But on Tuesday, the Justice Department abruptly changed its position.
> The move amounted to a dizzying turnabout in one of President Trump’s most audacious — and, many legal experts said, unconstitutional — attempts at subduing potentially powerful adversaries. It created new uncertainty in a legal profession already roiled by the orders, after some of the country’s biggest law firms thought they had put to rest a key part of the president’s retribution campaign less than 24 hours before.
So on Friday, the DOJ is back in court with 97 pages in their opening brief in the appeal.
#PerkinsCoie LLP v. #DOJ (25-5241, Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, 2026-03-06 Brief for Appellants, 97 pages)
(consolidating Jenner & Block LLP v. DOJ, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP v. #ExecutiveOfficeOfThePresident, and #SusmanGodfrey LLP v. #EOP )
The Trump Administration Just Admitted Its War On Law Firms Was A Bluff. The Cowards Who Folded Already Paid The Price.
We’ve said it over and over again on this site: when you stand up to the bully, the bully backs down. When you capitulate, you get nothing but a permanent stain and an invitation for more abu…
Dena Robinson, a lawyer in the #CivilRights Division:
“The idea of the investigation was that #PerkinsCoie supposedly engaged in illegal #discrimination against #WhiteMen. But Perkins Coie is an extremely white firm — only 3% of the partners are #Black. When my colleague pointed that out, the leadership didn’t care. They’d already reached their conclusion. They continued instructing my colleague to just find the evidence for it.”
In 2019, former Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee told The Lantern that he had no recollection of Dr. Richard Strauss. A former university physician, Strauss abused at least 177 Ohio State athletes and students from 1978-98. He was under Gee’s presidency for the last eight years of his tenure with the university, retiring […]
Trump Is Losing In Court In His Battle Against Law Firms
Trump's assault on law firms for the crime of representing people Trump doesn't like is getting pushback in the courts.
https://www.freezenet.ca/trump-is-losing-in-court-in-his-battle-against-law-firms/
#LawAndTechnology #News #challenge #lawyer #legal #PerkinsCoie
Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian explains how Judge Beryl Howell (DC Circuit) threw the book at the Trump regime in her summary judgment overturning the EO against the law firm Perkins Coie.
Rubin also chides the media for failing to point out consistently that EO’s are NOT laws and that most of Trump’s weird pronouncements will turn out to be just so much hot air.
#EO #RuleofLaw #lawfirms #lawfare #PerkinsCoie #BerylHowell #Contrarian #JenniferRubin
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/putting-trumps-threats-in-writing
#JudgeHowell really threw the book at #DOJ.
EO against #PerkinsCoie ruled #Unconstitutional . Summary judgment.
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