The department had indicated that it would withdraw four appeals less than a day previously
The US justice department has renewed its push to defend US president Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The department had indicated in a court filing on the evening of Monday March 2 that it was withdrawing appeals of four rulings shooting down sanctions against Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey, according to WSJ. However, in another court filing from Tuesday March 3, the department said the federal appeals court in Washington had not made a decision on the request for dismissal, and the administration retained its prerogative to continue its challenge.
The justice department is set to submit written legal arguments to the US Court of Appeals in the D.C. circuit in a few days. Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey slammed the department’s pullback on its withdrawal, describing it as “unexplained request to withdraw yesterday’s voluntary dismissal, to which all parties had agreed” in a snippet of a court filing published by WSJ.
On March 2, Susman Godfrey had published a statement on the justice department’s withdrawal, calling the decision a “a fitting end to its plainly unconstitutional attack on Susman Godfrey and the rule of law.” Columbia Law School associate professor Dennis Fan said in a statement published by WSJ that the justice department’s change of heart suggested “some level of palace intrigue.”
“The lawyers would almost never, and certainly never in a high-publicity case like this, tell the court they were withdrawing unless they felt that they had the clear go-ahead,” Fan said in the statement.
Trump began issuing executive orders against law firms last year, terminating lawyers’ access to government buildings and officials and threatening to suspend the federal contracts of the target firms’ clients. While a number of firms challenged the orders in court, several opted to sign deals pledging free legal services to the US administration in exchange for the sanctions being lifted.
Earlier this year, the Coalition for the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer named the US as its focus country for this year.
