A federal judge Wednesday issued a temporary block to President Donald Trump’s executive order against the law firm Perkins Coie for its election work representing his political opponents.
District Judge Beryl Howell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said Trump’s order was clearly “retaliatory in nature” against Perkins Coie.
Trump’s order set off alarms over its potential to undermine fair elections and the U.S.’ adversarial justice system by intimidating attorneys or law firms who might represent the president’s political opponents.
Trump’s order called on agencies to suspend Perkins Coie lawyers’ security credentials, to bar the lawyers from accessing government buildings and to terminate any contract they had with the firm — effectively paralyzing the firm’s ability to represent clients dealing with the federal government.
It specifically said Perkins Coie employees having access to government buildings would “threaten the national security” of the U.S. because of the firm’s work with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Howell’s restraining order prevents the Trump administration from barring Perkins Coie employees from accessing government buildings. However, it does not apply to the security clearance reviews called for in Trump’s order, the judge noted.
Perkins Coie, who is being represented by Williams & Connolly, argued in its lawsuit that Trump’s order “is an abusive, irrational abuse of power that shocks the conscience” and violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.
It also said the Trump administration was targeting it for its work in voting rights cases and its challenges to the Trump campaigns efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The law firm said the order’s false and disparaging characterizations damaged its reputation and led clients to drop the firm.
“Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients,” the lawsuit reads.
During a hearing Wednesday over Perkins Coie’s request for a restraining order, Department of Justice officials defended the executive order by arguing that the president’s exclusive ability to find whether individuals or companies can be trusted with national security secrets is “not reviewable” by courts.
Judge Howell in the hearing said the government’s argument sent “chills” down her spine and asked the government’s representatives if the president could then issue a similar executive order against Williams & Connolly in retaliation for representing Perkins Coie.
DOJ officials repeated their argument that the president’s power to determine who can be trusted with national security secrets is unreviewable in response to Howell’s question.
Perkins Coie was the second law firm targeted by Trump. In a separate but similar order last month, the president also attacked Covington & Burling for representing former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who pursued indictments against Trump over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents.
