A federal appeals court on Thursday weighed whether President Donald Trump’s executive orders punishing four prominent law firms violate the First Amendment and exceed executive authority, as the firms’ attorney warned that letting the sanctions stand would chill lawyers’ ability to represent unpopular clients.
The two-hour hearing before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came after district judges in Washington, D.C., repeatedly blocked the orders against Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey and WilmerHale. The panel gave no indication when it would rule.
Paul Clement, the attorney representing the four firms, told the court that Trump impermissibly punished the firms because of their relationships with clients and attorneys who “raised the president’s ire.”
“The executive orders here strike at the heart of the First Amendment and the ability of lawyers to zealously represent their clients,” Clement said. “Lawyers cannot zealously represent their clients while walking on eggshells for fear of reprisals.”
Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli argued that the district court judges overstepped, saying they “clearly didn’t like the content” of the executive orders. “President Trump is not beneath the law,” Kambli said. “He is entitled to the benefit of the Supreme Court and this court’s precedent on his authority to decide matters such as security clearance determinations and investigating anti-discrimination.”
Trump’s orders directed the suspension of security clearances for attorneys at the targeted firms, the termination of federal contracts and the barring of employees from federal buildings. The White House portrayed the sanctions as a response to the firms’ hiring of lawyers who had previously investigated Trump or represented clients he opposed.
Several other large law firms preemptively reached settlements with the administration, agreeing to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services to causes supported by Trump in order to avert similar orders.