A federal judge on Friday permanently barred the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order stripping the prominent law firm Perkins Coie of security clearance and access to government buildings and contractors.<\/p>\n
Washington, D.C. Judge Beryl Howell called Trump\u2019s retaliatory order an \u201cunprecedented attack\u201d on the principles of the legal system, and unconstitutional for violating several amendments.<\/p>\n
He compared Trump\u2019s attack to the exhortation: \u201cLet\u2019s kill all the lawyers,\u201d uttered in Shakespeare\u2019s Henry VI . <\/p>\n
\u201cIn a cringe-worthy twist on the theatrical phrase, \u201cLet\u2019s kill all the lawyers,\u201d Howell wrote, Trump \u201ctakes the approach of \u2018Let\u2019s kill the lawyers I don\u2019t like,\u2019 sending the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision permanently blocks the administration from enforcing Trump\u2019s March order that targeted the firm, in which the president blasted Perkins Coie for its ties to the left, including working with the 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton and liberal donor George Soros, and declared the firm a national security risk.<\/p>\n
Howell held that the executive order violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution, and that it amounted to Trump \u201csettling personal vendettas\u201d by taking steps that served \u201cno legitimate government interest, but only the interest of retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge also found that the attack on the firm effectively barred its clients from their constitutional rights to adequate legal representation, as the March order blocked Perkins Coie lawyers from entering government buildings.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit accused the Trump administration of trying to degrade the ability to freely practice law (Reuters)The over 100-page ruling also referred to similarly targeted firms like Paul, Weiss, which saw the threatened sanctions against it vanish soon after it became one of a number of firms that agreed to provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services to support administration priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of these agreed-upon policy or practice changes appear to explain or address how any national security concerns sufficient to warrant the Paul, Weiss EO [executive order] could have changed so rapidly,\u201d Howell wrote.<\/p>\n
The Independent has contacted the White House and Justice Department for comment.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s ruling could serve as a model for three similar suits for targeted firms that are still being considered. <\/p>\n
And it marks another escalation in the administration\u2019s war with the courts, where the White House has been accused of dangerously demonizing or ignoring rulings it disagrees with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal judge on Friday permanently barred the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order stripping the prominent law firm Perkins Coie of security clearance and access to government buildings and contractors. Washington, D.C. Judge Beryl Howell called Trump\u2019s retaliatory order an \u201cunprecedented attack\u201d on the principles of the legal system, and unconstitutional for violating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n