Another GOP-Appointed Judge Rejects Trump Attack on Big Law

A third federal judge on Tuesday delivered another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump's war on major law firms, striking down the Republican's executive order targeting WilmerHale.

"The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The Founding Fathers knew this!" wrote U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia. "Accordingly, they took pains to enshrine in the Constitution certain rights that would serve as the foundation for that independence."

"Little wonder that in the nearly 250 years since the Constitution was adopted no executive order has been issued challenging these fundamental rights," the appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush continued. "Now, however, several executive orders have been issued directly challenging these rights and that independence. One of these orders is the subject of this case."

Leon added that "for the reasons set forth below, I have concluded that this order must be struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional. Indeed, to rule otherwise would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers!"

The judge's use of exclamation points in his 73-page opinion about the permanent injunction caught the attention of legal experts, as did a footnote about the Gulf Coast stew gumbo.

"The order is akin to a gumbo," Leon wrote. "Sections 2 through 5 are the meaty ingredients—e.g., the Andouille, the okra, the tomatoes, the crab, the oysters. But it is the roux—here, §1—which holds everything together. A gumbo is served and eaten with all the ingredients together, and so too must the sections of the order be addressed together. As explained in this memorandum opinion, this gumbo gives the court heartburn."

Responding in a statement, WilmerHale said that "the court's decision to permanently block the unlawful executive order in its entirety strongly affirms our foundational constitutional rights and those of our clients."

Leon's decision follows a similar one from U.S. District Judge John Bates, another Bush appointee in D.C., in favor of the firm Jenner & Block on Friday. That came after Judge Beryl A. Howell, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama also in the nation's capital, blocked Trump's attack on Perkins Coie.

Susman Godfrey has a pending legal challenge, while other firms have struck controversial deals with the president.

In a Tuesday opinion piece for Common Dreams that preceded Leon's decision, Steven J. Harper, an attorney and former adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, predicted that "Trump's courtroom defeats will continue; appellate judges will affirm those rulings; and the U.S. Supreme Court won't bail him out this time."

"But he won the things he wanted most: neutralizing powerful potential courtroom adversaries, a $1 billion war chest, and a stunning public relations victory over powerful institutions that could have slowed his drive toward autocracy—all thanks to the firms that capitulated," Harper argued.

"Government attorneys trying to save Trump's unconstitutional orders are suffering irreparable career damage to their reputations," he added. "The Big Law firms that settled face new uncertainties about their attorneys, their clients, and their futures. They could admit their monumental mistakes, cut their losses, and walk away from a bad deal that is becoming worse by the day. But that would require humility, sound judgment, and a spine."