By Eric Tucker, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – Two main law firms should ask the separate judges on Wednesday to definitively block the executive decrees of President Donald Trump who were designed to punish them and harm their commercial operations.
Companies – Perkins Coie and Wilmerhale – said that the orders imposed in March are unconstitutional attacks against the legal profession that threatened their relations with customers and retaliate against them according to their past legal representations or their association with specific lawyers that Trump perceives as his adversaries.
The courts last month temporarily interrupted the application of the key provisions of the two orders, but companies are in court on Wednesday to request that the edicts be canceled in their entirety and that the judges make decisions in their favor. Another company, Jenner & Block, is expected to make similar arguments next week.
“Although Perkins Coie did not instruct this costume lightly, he was forced to do so to preserve his ability to continue to represent the best interests of his customers,” the lawyers of Perkins Coie wrote in a file before the hearing. “The Constitution does not allow our elected leaders to punish Fiat’s lawyers for having represented customers who oppose their political agendas. This would establish a preceding serious for our Republic if the order was authorized to stand up. ”
Executive orders targeting some of the most elite and eminent law firms in the country are part of a large Trump remuneration campaign designed to reshape civil society and extract the concessions of perceived opponents. Actions have forced targeted entities, whether law firms or universities, to decide to postpone and risk more the ire of the administration or to accept concessions in the hope of avoiding sanctions. Some companies have challenged the orders before the court, but others have proactively reached regulations.
The ordinances generally imposed the same consequences, in particular by directing the suspension of the security authorizations of lawyers, by restoring the access of lawyers to federal buildings and by putting an end to federal contracts.
The first action of the law firm took place in February when Trump signed a memo suspended the security authorizations of lawyers in Covington & Burling who provided legal services to the special lawyer Jack Smith, who investigated the president between his first and second mandates and obtained two accusation acts which have since been abandoned.
The executive decree targeting Perkins Coie distinguished the representation of the firm of the candidate for the Democratic presidential president Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race, and that against Wilmerhale cited the fact that the special council Robert Mueller – which investigated Trump during his first mandate on potential links between Russia and his 2016 campaign – was for years a partner of the company.
Last month, the firm Paul Weiss concluded an agreement with the Trump administration which led to a decree against its cancellation.
Since then, more than half a dozen other companies have concluded agreements with the White House which require them, among other things, to devote free legal services to the Trump administration says that IT champions.
They include Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Milbank; Willkie, Farr & Gallagher; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Cadwalader, Taft & Wickersham.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
