Donald Trump’s braggadocio just upended one of his executive orders.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell issued a permanent injunction against the president Friday night, ruling that his executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie was not only unconstitutional, but amounted to an “unprecedented attack” on the pillars of the judicial system.
“No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,’” Howell wrote in a scathing 102-page opinion.
Trump signed an executive order against Perkins Coie in March, revoking the firm’s security clearances and their access to government buildings, and nixing government contracts with the firm in part because they represented Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign.
But Howell dismantled the order based on Trump’s own claims about forcing other law firms into submission. During an April 8 speech cited in Howell’s ruling, Trump peacocked that “lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump.”
“$100 million, another $100 million, for damages that they’ve done,” Trump said at the time. But they give you $100 million and then they announce, ‘We have done nothing wrong.’ And I agree, they’ve done nothing wrong. But what the hell, they’ve given me a lot of money considering they’ve done nothing wrong.”
Also at fault was deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whose comments about another law firm—Susman Godfrey—included flaunting that the administration had effectively finagled upwards of a billion dollars in “free legal work” thanks to the executive branch’s pressure campaign.
Trump and Miller’s comments effectively proved that the president had singled firms out for “retribution” based on whether or not they were willing to cut a deal with the White House.
Perkins Coie said in a statement that the decision “affirms core constitutional freedoms all Americans hold dear, including free speech, due process, and the right to select counsel without the fear of retribution.”
It is unclear if the Trump administration plans to appeal the ruling.
The post Trump’s Own Words Come Back to Bite Him in Brutal Ruling appeared first on New Republic.
