Judge Blocks Trump Order Enacting 'Personal Vendetta' Against Law Firm

Saying that U.S. President Donald Trump's recent order blocking an international law firm from working with the federal government cast "a chilling harm of blizzard proportions across the legal profession," a federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order halting Trump's penalties, which she said were likely retaliatory.

U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, D.C. ruled that Trump violated the First Amendment and due process rights of the law firm, Perkins Coie, when he issued an executive order last week saying the federal government was barred from working with the firm or using contractors who work it in most circumstances.

Employees at the firm—including 1,200 lawyers and 2,500 workers who are not involved in Perkins Coie's legal cases—would also be barred from entering federal buildings and their security clearances would be suspended.

Trump said last week that it was "an absolute honor to sign" the order, which targeted a firm that represented Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2016, as well as contracting with a research firm that released the since-discredited Steele dossier. The dossier alleged contacts between Trump and Russia during the 2016 campaign; Marc Elias, the lawyer who was involved in producing the dossier, is no longer at Perkins Coie.

Perkins Coie argued in court that its ability to operate has already been damaged days after Trump signed the order, with its biggest 15 clients being barred from working with its lawyers because they hold government contracts. The clients account for 15% of Perkins Coie's business, and Howell noted in her order that thousands of employees who are not involved in the firm's legal work would be harmed if Trump's order was allowed to move forward.

"This executive order takes a wrecking ball to the rule of law," said Dane Butswinkas, a lawyer with the firm Williams & Connolly, which took Perkins Coie's case. "The effects have been immediate."

In a brief filed in the case, the law firm called Trump's order "an affront to the Constitution."

"Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the president perceives as adverse to the views of his administration," argued the firm. "Because the order in effect adjudicates and punishes alleged misconduct by Perkins Coie, it is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. Because it does so without notice and an opportunity to be heard, and because it punishes the entire firm for the purported misconduct of a handful of lawyers who are not employees of the firm, it is an unconstitutional violation of procedural due process and of the substantive due process right to practice one's professional livelihood."

Howell said Trump's order was borne out of a "personal vendetta" against a firm that has worked with his political opponents and likened his actions to those of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, who "yells, 'Off with their heads!' at annoying subjects... and announces a sentence before a verdict."

"This cannot be the reality we are living under," said Howell, adding that the order attacking a firm that Trump accused of working against his interests "sends little chills down my spine."

The judge said Trump's "retaliatory animus" against Perkins Coie was made clear by the order and a fact sheet presented by the White House last week, which noted that the firm had "filed lawsuits against the Trump administration."

Howell's restraining order does not apply to the portions of Trump's order which revoked employees' security clearance and addressed the firm's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The judge said she will hold an additional hearing to issue a permanent ruling.

The temporary ruling, said legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, is "a big win for Perkins Coie, the legal profession, the rule of law, and democracy."