A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order targeting major law firm Jenner & Block Friday.
Judge John D. Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, barred the current administration, for now, from going after the law firm in its March 25 executive order. The law firm previously employed Andrew Weissmann, an ex-federal prosecutor who was part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
The judge’s Friday evening ruling blocks most of Trump’s order, including Sections 3 and 5, alongside the language in Section 1.
Bates said that it was “disturbing” and “troubling” that the order, which looked to curtail the firms’ federal government contracts, lawyers’ access to government buildings and security clearances, also went after pro-bono work, a legal service firms provide free of charge to those who cannot afford them.
Bates said in the 2-page order that Attorney General Pam Bondi and the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought have to “immediately issue guidance to all other agencies subject to the Executive Order to suspend and rescind any implementation of enforcement of Section 3 and 5 of the Executive Order, as well as any use of or reliance on the statements in Section 1 of the Order.”
The judge ordered the Department of Justice to file a “status report” by noon on Monday to outline the steps taken that they have complied with the Friday ruling.
Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, another law firm, sued the administration Friday for its order as the president has continued going after Big Law organizations that have ties to his critics.
“The Constitution, top to bottom, protects against such attempts by the government to target citizens and lawyers based on the opinions they voice, the people with whom they associate, and the clients they represent,” Jenner & Block wrote in the lawsuit.
On Thursday, Trump signed the executive order going after WilmerHale, a firm that employed Mueller prior to and after he was serving as special counsel.
Trump has also penned a similar order, going against Covington, Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, three additional law firms.
