Cnn
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The Trump administration waged a war against the legal community in the United States with a target list increasing day by day.
So far, president Donald Trump has published decrees which targeted two law firms representing its perceived enemies, and its administration attacked cabinets and law schools which, according to them, could violate the presidential initiatives against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
THE executive decree Trump signed Return access by Perkins Coie To classify federal information and buildings and thus harm its ability to work for certain customers, sends shock waves via the legal establishment on a national scale.
“We have never seen a president proposing a specific order concerning a law firm,” said Ellen Podgor, professor of law and legal ethician at Stetson University, told CNN.
“You remove the ability of a lawyer to play in his role as a lawyer,” added Podgor. “Order for me is … depriving all our right to advice. This is a major amendment to our constitution. »»
The reprisals of the White House were boldly a political response intended for a group of lawyers and companies which are very little known in public life outside of Washington. But the implications can be deep, with the administration of Trump positioning itself in direct opposition with large institutions, using its power to suppress the work of experienced and influential lawyers.
The movements also encroach on what the legal community considers a fundamental right for people who need lawyers to have the freedom to choose who represents them – an ability that Trump had as a criminal defendant pursued by the Ministry of Justice.
The executive decree on Perkins Coie suspends the national security authorizations for the lawyer’s lawyers, because it was part of the effort to put into service Russian file now infamous About Trump and his advisers in the 2016 elections. The White House says that it could also limit the lawyers’ lawyers to visit federal buildings and asked agencies not to hire in employees of the company’s government.
Perkins Coie continued on Tuesday, asking the Washington Federal Court an emergency aid to block the Trump prescription against it, and enlisted another large private law firm to represent it.
An assistant from the White House said Thursday that the administration planned to review the practices of other law firms, saying that there may be more to come. Trump’s order on Perkins Coie Included a call For the Employment Equal Employment Committee, to review other important, influential or leading law firms “in case they offer preferential hires based on candidates’ races.
In all, the measures taken by the administration sent a “scary” tone to the legal industry, said Cari Brunelle, the founder of a legal consulting firm who works with several large American law firms.
“It is unprecedented in our country. … The message is: Look where you walk, ”she said.
In recent history, the closest comparison with the black list of Trump’s White House in the legal industry is the approach that the president of the time that Richard Nixon adopted when he made a “Enemies“Added Bruneur.
So far, law firms have reacted out of fear, said Brunelle. Many want to avoid becoming a target, while others look and rewrite what their websites say, in particular with regard to their policies of diversity, equity and inclusion, which the administration says that it takes into consideration because it considers that the restriction of more companies.
The security authorizations of other lawyers have also been deleted in recent weeks by prescription from the White House, in particular Those of the largest private law firm in WashingtonCovington & Burling, which were involved in the representation of former special lawyer Jack Smith, now private.
“US law firms have always repavoable interest in the United States government, without worrying if there would be reprisals or sanctions so far,” said Bruneur. “He just created an incredible amount of fear.” (Brunelle’s company has not perkins Coie or Covington & Burling as customers.)
Brunelle said there may be a number of security, if many great chief of staff, law schools and other members of the legal industry publicly criticized Trump’s approach. But so far, the response has been willing to law firms themselves.
Marc Elias, lawyer for Democrats who until 2021 was the main lawyer for Perkins Coy criticized the lack of large law firms Ralling behind those who lost security authorizations in a newsletter by email on Monday. “It didn’t happen,” he wrote.
Law schools and independent groups that represent the legal community have been more daring in repulsive.
The Georgetown University Law Center responded, for example, to a letter from the American acting lawyer from Washington, DC, do not hire His students if the school’s study program did not comply with Trump’s policies.
“The first amendment guarantees, however, that the government cannot lead what Georgetown and its faculty teach and how to teach it,” said Georgetown Law William Treanor Dean written last week to Ed Martin.
Several eminent national groups have qualified the Trump administration’s actions to injure the rule of law in the United States.
The American College of Trial Lawyers condemned recent declarations of The close advisor to Trump, Elon Musk, who called for the dismissal of certain judges.
“We invite our scholarship holders and all lawyers, judges, legislators, executive officials, historians, political scientists and citizens who appreciate our democracy to express themselves and to condemn threats to dismiss the judges because of the disagreement with the judge’s legitimate orders,” said the group.
The elite and invitation group only responded to the executive orders RI inmarkets against Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling by calling them “climb“Threats and sapper from the judicial system.
“Lawyers across the country should unite to condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms,” said the group.
The American Bar Association, a voluntary organization with a large number of American lawyers as members, has also been deeply critical Actions of the Trump administration in recent weeks, with its president, William Bay, saying that approaches are an attack on the rule of law.
The group has been in the conservative reticle for years. The Federal Trade Commission last month prohibited its appointments from taking steering positions in ABA or to participate in its events, said Bay. Chair FTC Andrew Ferguson, In a letter to the staff In mid-February, called the group “liable to the interests of Big Tech” and to a “radical left” organization “guided by the principles of the Democratic Party”.
In a move with similar results, more than two dozen employees of the Ministry of Justice who were to speak at the Conference of White Cols of the ABA in Miami canceled their plans to attend, the group’s organizer, Raymond Banoun told CNN.
When the Ethics Committee spoke during the conference on Friday, some of the most political measures in the administration, there was essentially no staff of the Ministry of Justice to hear them.
This story has been updated with additional developments.