More than five hundred law firms have signed a court brief backing a lawsuit filed by Perkins Coie, a Democratic Party-linked law firm that was targeted in an executive order by the Trump administration last month. “Although we do not take this step lightly, our abiding commitment to preserving the integrity of the American legal system leaves us no choice but to join together,” the document reads. The White House has issued executive orders against firms and even specific lawyers that have brought cases opposing the president, putting restrictions in place that would stymie their work when it comes to interacting with government officials and institutions.
The White House has defended the executive orders as a legitimate use of presidential power, but U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who is presiding over Perkins Coie’s case, has blocked a number of its provisions, saying that they threaten “the very foundations of our legal system.” Howell went on to state that the order likely amounted to “extreme, dangerous, and unprecedented” encroachments on constitutional principles of free speech and due process as it seeks to intimidate legal opposition to the president.
The amicus brief echoes this sentiment: “the looming threat posed by the executive order at issue in this case and the others like it is not lost on anyone practicing law in this country today: any controversial representation challenging actions of the current administration (or even causes it disfavors) now brings with it the risk of devastating retaliation.”
For all the support Perkins Coie has received in its lawsuit, none of it has come from the country’s largest and most powerful firms. The New York Times reports that none of the country’s top 20 law firms by revenue have joined the brief, and less than 10 in the top 100 have joined. Other firms targeted by the administration have cut deals, such as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which has offered tens of millions of dollars-worth of pro bono work for the White House in exchange for the order against it being rescinded. Paul, Weiss is one of four firms that have agreed to provide legal services to the White House in the wake of the executive orders.
In an interview with CBS that aired on Sunday morning, Bernie Sanders called the move from the firms “absolute cowardice.” The Vermont senator accused them of prioritizing their bottom line, telling the news outlet that “they’re gonna sell out their souls to Donald Trump in order to continue to be able to make money here in Washington.”
