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Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie is unconstitutional, judge rules (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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US district judge Beryl Howell says order violates first, fifth and sixth amendments and permanently blocks it

A federal judge on Friday permanently struck down Donald Trump’s executive order that targeted the firm Perkins Coie, which once worked with his 2016 presidential election rival Hillary Clinton, after declaring in an extraordinary ruling that the order was unconstitutional and unlawful.

The decision from the US district judge Beryl Howell, which criticized virtually every aspect of the order in a 102-page opinion, marks a major victory for Perkins Coie and could be used as a model by other judges weighing cases brought by other law firms in similar orders.

“No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue,” she wrote, adding: “In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”

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[–] litchralee 1 points 1 week ago

Direct link (PDF; 102 pages) to the Memorandum Opinion (the bulk of the ruling) and direct link (PDF; 5 pages) to the Order (grants the Motion for Summary Judgement; spells out exactly what the government must now do).

These come to me by way of Kyle Cheney on BlueSky and emptywheel on BlueSky via Fediverse bridge.

I'm only halfway through reading the Memorandum Opinion, but dang if there aren't banger quotes there. Some examples, mostly from the footnotes:

If the founding history of this country is any guide, those who stood up in court to vindicate constitutional rights and, by so doing, served to promote the rule of law, will be the models lauded when this period of American history is written.

In addition to the parties’ voluminous submissions, twenty-two amicus briefs have been submitted in support of plaintiff from a wide range of interested lawyers and law firms; legal professional organizations; law professors; 346 former state and federal judges; former and current in-house general counsel; former senior government officials; media and press freedom organizations; and organizations including the ACLU, Cato Institute, Institute for Justice, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, among others. A single amicus brief was submitted in support of the government by three gun rights groups and three conservative advocacy organizations. See Br. Amicus Curiae of America’s Future, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of California, Judicial Action Group, & Conservative Legal Defense & Education Fund in Supp. of Recons. of the TRO & Gov’t’s MTD (“Br. of America’s Future et al.”), ECF No. 131 (beginning with four Bible verses at the top of the Table of Authorities, see id. at iii, and arguing for expansive Executive Power, while noting the total number of votes and Electoral College margin in favor of President Trump, id. at 23, and listing the injunctions issued by federal courts against the current Trump Administration’s actions, see id. App. 1).