Judge Richard J. Leon, of the D.C. District Court granted a permanent injunction agsinst Pres. Trump’s Executive Order which targeted the big law firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. I previously wrote about that Executive Order here. Judge Leon used twenty-six exclamation points in his order. The EO, said the Judge, had a “kitchen sink of severe sanctions.” The judge found it violated the First Amendment protection against free speech, the Fifth Amendment regarding Wilmer Hale’s right to due process, and the Sixth Amendment regarding its clients’ right to counsel. It is an overwhelming win for the law firm against an exceedingly weak EO.
In its first sentence, the EO specifically mentioned the law firm hiring Robert Mueller. Mr. Mueller conducted the investigation into Pres. Trump in 2016. The EO pointed to Wilmer’ Hale’s participation in election and immigration litigation and said it participated in “partisan representations.” (As if in our adversarial process, there might be non-partisan representations). The EO clearly took aim at Wilmer Hale’s free speech rights.
By the time of Judge Leon’s decision, the EO had already resulted in two lawyers seeing their security clearances suspended. The Court’s order added that existing clients have already started to curtail their business with the firm and new clients are taking their business elsewhere. Provisions in the executive order “constitute a staggering punishment for the firm’s protected speech!” The Judge was clearly annoyed with the EO. He was right to be upset. EOs targeting law firms for protected speech does not even come close to lawful. See ABA Bar Journal report here for more information.
See Judge Leon’s order here.