Trump’s war on law firms for daring to represent clients he doesn’t personally like is getting pushback from other law firms.
If there is one constant with far right extremists, it is that anyone under a far right regime must completely unquestionably follow the far right ideology or face the consequences. A famous example of this is how free speech only counts if it is speech that the far right agree with. Anything else must get silenced and those who have that speech must be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Unsurprisingly, fascist dictator, Donald Trump, is following along with the far right blue-print in a pretty dedicated manner – albeit in an idiotic way. We’ve seen this through the detention of American citizens, the disappearances of people for the crime of publishing content that the administration doesn’t like, the free speech assault on science journals, the call to jail reporters for the crime of publishing politically inconvenient facts, the call to jail all perceived political opponents in general, and the arresting of judges after the call to crack down on judges for the crime of not ruling in the Trump administrations favour.
Back in March, we also documented the fact that Trump is also going after law firms. This for the crime of, among other things, representing clients that the Trump administration doesn’t like. Embedded in these threats is the revocation of access to various critical facilities. Obviously, if you are a lawyer representing a client, you might need access to the court house that the case is taking place. So, essentially, for reasons like the aforementioned access, these threats were basically an effort to end the law firms existence unless you agree to totally serve Trump’s interests and no one else. It’s an existential threat to put it directly.
For the legal community, the hope was that all law firms would respond to such threats with a firm “no” as they stand up for the rule of law. For some, however, the shocking twist is that some law firms, like Paul Weiss, surrendered to the Trump administration. Questions, naturally, circulated about how if the law firm won’t stand up for their own or their clients interest, what kind of law firm are they really anyway? The shocking surrender of such a powerful law firm seemingly gave Trump an open invitation to go after more law firms.
While some law firms are shamefully surrendering to the demands of the Trump administration, not all law firms are so eager to pledge unconditional surrender to the fascist regime. One example is Perkins Coie, a law firm that chose to fight back against this insanity, arguing, among other things, that this is a nation of the rule of law and that law firms should be free to represent clients without fear of retaliation from the president. So, some of the notorious executive orders are getting challenged in court for the unconstitutional nightmares that they are.
Recently, we learned that 500 law firms are joining in on this fight against the unconstitutional overreach of the US president. This in a form of an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the case. The idea here is that if the president chooses to pick a fight against one law firm, then the president is picking a fight against all law firms. Legal Eagle’s law firm is one such law firm that joined the fight. In a video he posted, he detailed the legal filing on why such a filing is so important. You can also watch the video below:
The filing, along with the effort to fight back on the part of Perkins Coie, shows that not everyone is just bowing to the whims of the Trump administration and forgoing all constitutionally protected activities. It is clearly an effort to defend the rule of law and fight against all the nastiness that Trumps war on law firms represents.
While Legal Eagle admits that, yes, it is an amicus brief that the court may or may not take into consideration, it was an effort to take a stand for basic legal principles in the US legal community. What’s more, they are putting their name on a list that the Trump administration may take notice at a later time. Simply put, it is an act of bravery for those who feel that it is important to stand up for the rule of law rather than act out of cowardice when the rule of law is challenged by an out of control maniac president who wants to crack down on basic civil liberties. A principled stand if you will.
While there is a lot of bad things going on in the world, it is nice to see something positive happening – even if it winds up being little more than a symbolic stand. That is worth something at least. After all, it beats just quietly letting basic civil rights gradually slip away as democracy dies in America. Here’s hoping that Trumps attacks on the legal community hit a road block with this case.
