By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) -U.S. law firm Jenner & Block will ask a judge on Monday to permanently bar U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order punishing the firm for its affiliation with a prosecutor who investigated ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia.
The firm will urge Republican-appointee U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington to reject the entirety of Trump’s March 25 order.
The hearing, set to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT), marks the latest legal clash in the Republican president’s pressure campaign against prominent law firms whose lawyers or cases he opposes.
Trump’s order against Chicago-founded Jenner cited its past employment of Andrew Weissmann, a top federal prosecutor in U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has described the Russia investigation as a “hoax” and “witch hunt.”
The executive order sought to restrict Jenner’s lawyers from accessing federal buildings and officials and to end government contracts held by its clients.
Jenner sued, calling the order a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech and Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process, a requirement for the government to use a fair legal process.
Three other firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — have sued the administration to permanently block the executive orders he issued against them.
Judges in all four lawsuits against the administration issued temporary rulings that blocked key provisions of the White House orders.
Nine law firms, including Jenner rivals Paul Weiss, Milbank, Simpson Thacher and Skadden Arps, have pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to causes the White House supports and made other concessions to avoid being targeted by Trump.
Jenner is one of more than a dozen law firms that are currently suing the Trump administration over its efforts to curb transgender rights and to freeze federal spending at many agencies.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Comments