A federal judge on Friday struck down an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year targeting the law firm Jenner & Block, ruling the effort ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The decision from US District Judge John Bates in Washington, DC, represents the second time in recent weeks a judge has thwarted Trump’s attempt to retaliate against a top law firm.
“This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers,” Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in the ruling. “It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full.”
“The challenged executive order targets Jenner for what it has said and thereby attempts to dampen what it might yet say. That is unconstitutional under any view of the First Amendment,” the judge concluded.
The order from Trump targeting Jenner & Block instructed federal agencies to terminate contracts with the firm and its clients, limited the firm’s access to federal officials and buildings and suspended the security clearances for attorneys at the firm.
Shortly after the law firm sued, Bates paused parts of the order while the case unfolded. But his new ruling goes significantly further by overturning every part of the order.
Earlier this month, another judge in Bates’ courthouse similarly overturned a separate order from the president that targeted the firm Perkins Coie. Several other cases brought by other firms facing a retaliatory executive order are still pending.
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