The American Bar Association, the nation’s largest organization of lawyers, sued the Trump administration on Monday over its efforts to punish law firms it does not like, asking the courts to stop the president’s campaign against their profession.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, says that President Trump’s practice of issuing executive orders that restrict the ability of law firms to even speak with a wide array of government officials “is unprecedented and uniquely dangerous to the rule of law.”
Mr. Trump has issued orders against some firms, and struck deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono work with others seeking to avoid similar punishment.
The executive orders have resulted in a deep philosophical split inside the legal profession, as some lawyers assert that a compromise is necessary for their companies to survive, while others insist that publicly capitulating to the president is a form of reputational suicide for law firms.
The firms that have sued over the orders have all won court rulings in their favor. The suit by the American Bar Association, however, seeks a more sweeping ruling against what it calls Mr. Trump’s “law firm intimidation policy.” The group describes the approach as one that is “designed to intimidate and coerce law firms and lawyers to refrain from challenging the president or his administration in court, or from even speaking publicly in support of policies or causes that the president does not like.”
And despite the success of the legal challenges to the executive orders, the American Bar Association says the administration’s tack has nevertheless weakened the practice of law.
Some firms have stopped doing legal work for causes the president does not favor, others are trying to lower their profiles, and public interest groups are increasingly struggling to find lawyers who will represent them, the lawsuit contends.
“What is happening today is not normal,” the suit adds.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In court hearings, a Justice Department lawyer has argued the presidential decrees targeting law firms are constitutional, because they do not come with specific guidelines as to how they should be applied to the firms. Multiple judges have scoffed at that argument, convinced that the targeted firms were clearly already suffering the effects of the punishment.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
The post American Bar Association Sues Trump Administration appeared first on New York Times.
