Judge Blocks Key Provisions Of Trump’s Bid To Punish Democratic-linked Law Firm

President Donald Trump’s retaliation against a prominent Democratic-linked law firm is likely unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration from enforcing central provisions of an executive order that seeks to punish the law firm, Perkins Coie, by barring its attorneys from interacting with federal agencies or even entering federal buildings.

Howell said the “retaliatory animus” of Trump’s order is “clear on its face” and appears to violate constitutional restrictions on “viewpoint discrimination.” The executive order, which Trump issued last week, “runs head on into the wall of First Amendment protections,” the judge concluded.

Perkins Coie, which is based in Seattle, has often represented Democratic politicians and causes, including Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Trump has long targeted the firm as a political and legal adversary for its role in commissioning the anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele in 2016. That dossier, whose salacious allegations against Trump were never confirmed by federal investigators, helped fuel the long-running probe of his 2016 campaign’s interactions with Russia.

The executive order, if allowed to take effect, would hamstring the firm’s ability to represent clients who have business with the federal government. The firm claims that Trump’s directive has already led clients to abandon the firm and is likely to prompt federal officials to cancel or deny meetings on a wide array of pending matters.

Howell noted that the order would harm not only the firm’s 1,200 lawyers — most of whom had nothing to do with the Russia probe — but its 2,500 non-lawyer employees, from IT staff to secretaries.

The judge said Trump’s order was also flawed because it was issued without any notice to the firm or due process to challenge his determination.

“This may be amusing in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where the Queen of Hearts yells, ‘Off with their heads!’ at annoying subjects … and announces a sentence before a verdict,” Howell said, “but this cannot be the reality we are living under.”

The executive order also stripped security clearances from lawyers at the firm, but the firm has not challenged that provision. Under Supreme Court precedent, the president has nearly unfettered discretion to grant or remove security clearances.

Dane Butswinkas, a lawyer representing Perkins Coie, described the president’s order as “like a tsunami waiting to hit the firm.”

“It truly is life-threatening. ... It will spell the end of the law firm,” he said.

Howell’s ruling is a temporary restraining order, meaning it blocks key provisions of the executive order while litigation continues. In emphatic remarks from the bench following an emergency hearing Wednesday, Howell expressed grave concern that Trump’s order would intimidate other law firms, discouraging them from taking on causes or people at odds with the administration.

“I am sure that many in the legal profession are watching in horror at what Perkins Coie is going through here,” said the judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “The order casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportions across the legal profession.”

The hearing featured an unusual appearance by the Justice Department’s chief of staff and acting No. 3 official, Chad Mizelle, who argued in defense of Trump’s order. Mizelle said Trump has largely unchecked authority to single out individuals or organizations as threatening to government interests.

“The president of the United States … is authorized under the Constitution to find certain individuals and certain companies are not trustworthy with the nations’ secrets,” Mizelle said.

Mizelle said Perkins Coie was raising the alarm about a series of potential consequences that have not yet materialized and might never come to pass once agencies issue guidance interpreting Trump’s order.

“What they’re complaining about is a series of bogeymen,” Mizelle said. “None of those ghosts are real. The bogeymen are not real.”

Howell’s ruling is the first legal brushback to Trump for his recent orders targeting law firms he perceives as hostile to his interests. Last month, Trump pulled security clearances for lawyers at the prominent firm Covington & Burling after learning that several of its attorneys had agreed to represent former special counsel Jack Smith, who criminally prosecuted Trump.

Since his inauguration to a second term in January, Trump has also revoked the security clearances of scores of former officials, including President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and more than 50 former intelligence officials who signed a letter arguing that reports about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation operation.