Trump-Era Orders Face Renewed Legal Challenge as Major US Law Firms Seek Permanent Block

Prominent US law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged a federal appeals court in Washington to uphold rulings that blocked punitive White House executive orders against them.

Law firms Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, Susman Godfrey and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr said in filings to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the Trump administration’s orders were blatantly illegal and should remain permanently barred.

Trump's orders against the firms last year sought to restrict access to federal buildings for their lawyers and to end US government contracts held by their clients. The president accused the firms of “weaponizing” the legal system against him and his allies and promoting workplace diversity policies he described as discriminatory.

Four judges in Washington found Trump's orders violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process, issuing rulings that permanently blocked the directives.

In its response to the government’s appeal on Friday, Susman Godfrey warned that a ruling in favour of the Trump administration would place it and other law firms “under the thumb of the President, forced to submit to his whims regardless of their own sense of duty to the Constitution, their clients, and the rule of law.”

“Lawyers cannot be effective advocates for their clients if they face sweeping sanctions for their protected speech and associations,” Jenner said in its brief.

The White House had no immediate comment on Friday, while the US Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

The D.C. Circuit has scheduled oral arguments on May 14, though the court has yet to name the three-judge panel that will hear the case.

The Trump administration filed its arguments earlier this month, asking the appellate court to reinstate the executive orders against the four firms.

The Justice Department argued that the dispute is “not about the sanctity of the American law firm” but rather concerns “lower courts encroaching on the constitutional power of the president” in matters involving national security and governance.

Perkins Coie, in its filing on Friday, described the executive orders as “shocking abuses of power that trample the constitutional rights of the law firms and their clients.”

“These egregious First Amendment violations pose a severe threat to the legal profession and the rule of law,” WilmerHale said in its brief.

Nine other prominent firms, including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Latham & Watkins; and Kirkland & Ellis, reached settlements with Trump last year to rescind or avoid similar executive orders, collectively pledging nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal work to causes he supports.

The consolidated case, Perkins Coie v. U.S. Department of Justice, is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit under case number 25-5241.

For any enquiries or information, contact ask@tlr.ae or call us on +971 52 644 3004. Follow The Law Reporters on WhatsApp Channels.