By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court on Friday to revive his executive orders that sought to punish four major U.S. law firms, arguing that federal judges overstepped their authority by blocking directives that rest within core presidential powers.
The Justice Department told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the four judges “bent over backwards” to invalidate Trump’s orders against the firms Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey “without considering their plainly constitutional aspects and applications.”
The law firms in lawsuits challenging the directives said the Republican president illegally retaliated against them for representing his political adversaries or clients who challenged his policies in court, or had employed lawyers who took part in past government investigations aimed at the president.
Trump’s executive orders sought to restrict access to federal buildings for lawyers working for the firms and to end U.S. government contracts held by clients of the firms.
The judges found that Trump violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech and Fifth Amendment promise of due process, and issued orders permanently blocking the directives.
The administration’s filing with the D.C. Circuit came after the Justice Department on Monday moved to abandon its appeals of the judicial rulings, then reversed that stance the following day. The filing marked the administration’s first explanation of its legal rationale for seeking to reinstate Trump’s orders.
WilmerHale in a statement on Friday said “we disagree with the government’s decision to appeal this judicial consensus, and we will proudly continue to defend our clients and our firm.”
Trump had accused the four firms of “weaponizing” the legal system against him and his allies and promoting workplace diversity policies he called discriminatory.
In Friday’s filing, the Justice Department said the case is “not about the sanctity of the American law firm” but rather “is about lower courts encroaching on the constitutional power of the president” in the realm of national security and other matters.
Nine other prominent law firms, including Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis, reached settlements with Trump last year to rescind or avoid similar actions against them, and collectively pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal work to causes that he supports.
The administration had faced a Friday deadline to file its opening court papers in the appeals. The D.C. Circuit has not yet set an argument date to weigh the administration’s appeals.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Will Dunham)
