The crowd of protesters that packed Foley Square in downtown Manhattan on Thursday was as raucous as any demonstration in a politically vociferous city. It was, however, decidedly more wonky and dapper.
About 1,500 demonstrators, many of them lawyers sporting business attire, jammed the plaza outside Manhattan’s federal courthouse as part of the National Law Day of Action, chanting in favor of the rule of law and hoisting pocket Constitutions to the sky.
It was one of around 50 similar actions around the nation on Thursday, led by lawyers who say President Trump is threatening the foundation of America’s legal system.
“The rule of law protects us all. Without it we will surely fall,” the crowd chanted.
In his second term, Mr. Trump has aimed to hobble elite law firms, threatened to impeach judges and ignored their orders. For many inside the legal profession, his actions have presented an unpalatable choice between compromising their values by staying silent and facing professional risk by speaking out.
Now, a growing number of lawyers see a moral imperative in choosing the latter option. They believe Mr. Trump’s crusade is threatening not just their livelihoods, but a system to which they have devoted their lives. On Thursday, thousands of lawyers were expected to protest at federal courthouses in New York, Chicago and San Francisco — roughly 50 cities in all.
In interviews, attendees of the event in New York pointed to a range of actions, including Mr. Trump’s targeting of law firms he viewed as hostile, wrongful deportations and the arrest of a Wisconsin judge on charges of obstructing immigration enforcement.
“I’m horrified by what’s going on,” said James Kainen, 71, a law professor at Fordham University and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. “We had ethics. We prosecuted people because they violated the law, not because they angered somebody for some ridiculous reason.”
Mr. Kainen held up a sign that said “I want Perkins Coie as my law firm,” referring to a firm that Mr. Trump has targeted with an executive order.
Organizers of the Foley Square rally instructed attendees to dress “as if they were appearing in court,” and encouraged them to carry pocket Constitutions.
“We want people to see that we treat this issue with utmost respect,” said Ron Minkoff, a criminal defense lawyer and an organizer. “This is like the courtroom to us.”
It was not exactly a mass street protest. The jurists voiced their disapproval by ceremonially reaffirming their oath to upholding the rule of law. But the fact that lawyers are not famous for participating in demonstrations, organizers said, underscored the seriousness of the moment.
“If lawyers are taking to the streets, it means something very serious and bad is happening,” said Traci Feit Love, the executive director of Lawyers for Good Government, a nonprofit that helped coordinate the events.
The administration’s wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Mr. Trump’s threats against judges were motivations for the day of action, but the president’s targeting of elite law firms was a particular focus for some. Mr. Trump has unleashed a flurry of executive orders aimed at crippling firms he says have used the justice system against him. The orders have limited the firms’ access to federal buildings and canceled their government contracts.
In March, some of those firms started cutting deals, pledging pro bono legal support for Mr. Trump’s causes in exchange for relief from his executive actions. Angered by the capitulations, organizations such as the New York County Lawyers Association and the New York Civil Liberties Union started discussing ways to stand up for what they saw as an assault on their profession.
“We’re deeply concerned about the response of some of the major law firms,” said Dawn Cardi, a defense lawyer who also helped organize the event in New York. “It feels a little bit like I imagine it felt in the McCarthy era.”
Since the event was first envisioned, a growing number of firms have fought back, calling Mr. Trump’s actions unconstitutional. Even the firms that have capitulated have seen internal dissent.
Last week, lawyers for Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, both targeted by Mr. Trump, asked the courts to permanently block the orders. Hundreds of firms have signed briefs backing Perkins Coie. Last week, a federal judge stopped Mr. Trump from targeting the firm Susman Godfrey, calling it “a shocking abuse of power.”
J.B. Howard, a counsel in global litigation at Cadwalader, resigned after his firm made a deal with Mr. Trump.
In an interview, Mr. Howard, 61, stressed that he was not angry at his firm for its decision. But he said he feared the consequences for his profession, and worried about the example he would set for his son, a law student, if he continued to work for a firm that had capitulated to Mr. Trump.
“I just can’t be a practicing lawyer feeling as though I have abandoned a sacred obligation,” Mr. Howard said. On Thursday, he attended a Law Day event in Denver, where he, along with more than 100 lawyers, entered the federal courthouse and retook their oaths.
More junior lawyers and law students have been outspoken about their outrage, even as they acknowledge the professional risks.
Hope Elizabeth Guzzle, a first-year law student at Fordham who attended the rally in New York, said the Trump administration’s attack on legal norms had helped convince her to pursue a career in public interest law, rather than corporate law.
“The one place where there is still concern for norms and fighting back is in the law,” said Ms. Guzzle, 24, who wore courtroom attire and held a sign that said “Why am I even studying for my Con Law exam?”
A group of Georgetown University law students has created a spreadsheet of firms that color-codes them by whether they’ve capitulated to Mr. Trump, an effort first reported by the site All Rise News. In April, three anonymous law students filed suit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, asking a federal court to bar firms from handing over sensitive information about employees to the administration.
On Tuesday, more than 1,000 law students filed an amicus brief supporting Susman Godfrey in its fight against Mr. Trump. Sam Haddad, a second-year law student at Yale Law School who signed the brief, said the Trump administration’s attack on the rule of law — and how many big firms had cut deals — had given him pause about his career path.
“I now understand that legal professionals can hesitate, or worse, capitulate when the crisis is clear and the need to respond is unambiguous,” Mr. Haddad, who worked at Susman as a fellow last summer, said in an interview.
Mr. Howard said that the firms’ decisions would cost them in the fullness of time.
“These firms that are capitulating are kind of toxic to young lawyers and the next generation of lawyers,” he said.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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