Quoting Shakespeare’s “kill all the lawyers” line, a federal judge ruled that President Trump strayed well beyond the bounds of propriety when he sought to punish a Democrat-connected law firm for working against him.
Judge Beryl A. Howell, an Obama appointee and frequent Trump critic, delivered a paean to lawyers, portraying them as a crucial bulwark against Mr. Trump’s aggressive moves.
“Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power,” she scolded.
She was ruling in a case where Mr. Trump sought to punish Perkins Coie, the firm that helped promote election misinformation in the Steele Dossier during the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump said the firm had engaged in “dishonest and dangerous activity.” He ordered the administration to cancel contracts with the firm, limit its employees’ access to federal buildings and review the lawyers’ security clearances.
Judge Howell, though, said the order amounted to attacking the firm for having engaged in constitutionally protected speech.
She said other law firms engaged in some similar activities as Perkins Coie, but escaped sanction. That, she said, was evidence the executive order was issued “only in the interest of retaliation.”
She also rejected Mr. Trump’s suggested that the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies amount to illegal racial discrimination.
“The order provides no definition or guidance as to what form of program possibly described by these terms is considered unlawful discrimination by the Trump administration, leaving plaintiff to guess at what is and is not permissible in the government’s view, while already facing the threat of adverse actions during the guessing,” she ruled.
Judge Howell had previously issued a restraining order halting enforcement of the order. Friday’s decision is a permanent injunction.
Other firms targeted with similar orders from Mr. Trump include Wilmer Cutler, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey.
