A prominent Chicago-based law firm accused by the Trump administration of engaging in “conduct detrimental to critical American interests,” is suing to halt an executive order it claims is an unconstitutional abuse of power. The firm of Jenner & Block on Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to stop President Donald Trump’s order, which it says was made to punish firms that worked with those who investigated the president prior to his second term in office. “For more than 100 years, Jenner has stood firm and tirelessly advocated for our clients against all adversaries, including against unlawful government action,” the firm said in a statement. “We once again go to court to do just that. To do otherwise would mean compromising our ability to zealously advocate for all of our clients and capitulating to unconstitutional government coercion, which is simply not in our DNA.”
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The order, signed Tuesday, restricts Jenner’s 900 attorneys and staff members from accessing federal buildings, instructs federal agencies not to meet or engage with Jenner personnel and seeks to revoke any security clearances held by Jenner’s employees. It’s one of a litany of similar orders signed by Trump in recent days targeting law firms throughout the country. The executive order against Jenner & Block this week stemmed from the fact that the firm once employed Andrew Weissmann, a lawyer who served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that investigated Trump during his first term in office. Weissmann left the firm four years ago. As Jenner & Block noted in its lawsuit, a federal court has already issued a temporary restraining order against a nearly identical executive order targeting another firm, Perkins Coie LLP. “Every day the Order remains in effect, it causes Jenner escalating and irreparable harm to its reputation and finances,” the law firm said in its lawsuit. “And more fundamentally, every day the Order remains in effect, it causes irreparable damage by seeking to coerce American businesses, lawyers, and citizens to conform with the Administration’s views or be targeted for noncompliance, and to intimidate anyone who would associate with and represent clients adverse to the Administration’s agenda.” Targeted law firms have taken different approaches to executive orders that threaten to upend their business model and chill their legal practice. While Perkins Coie has challenged the Trump order, the Paul Weiss firm, by contrast, cut a deal with the White House days after being targeted, with its chairman saying that the order presented an “existential crisis” for the firm and that he wasn’t sure it could have survived a protracted fight with the Trump administration.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Thanks to our sponsors:
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