Key points:
- Judge Beryl Howell fully enjoined enforcement of EO 14230 targeting Perkins Coie.
- The order was ruled unconstitutional under the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.
- Howell’s opinion denounced the order as political retaliation against disfavored lawyers.
In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has declared unconstitutional the Trump administration’s executive order (EO 14230) targeting Big Law firm Perkins Coie, marking the first permanent legal defeat for the wave of executive orders aimed at law firms based on their client representations. Howell enjoined enforcement of the order in its entirety, issuing a sweeping decision that denounced the action as a violation of fundamental constitutional protections.
The case stemmed from EO 14230, which directed federal agencies to take retaliatory action against Perkins Coie for its past legal work—an order Perkins Coie quickly challenged as violating its rights under the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. Howell had previously granted a temporary restraining order blocking key provisions, but Monday’s ruling makes the injunction permanent, declaring the entire executive order “null and void.”
The ruling, described by legal commentators as a “tour de force,” opened with a powerful reference to Shakespeare’s Henry VI: “‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’” Judge Howell invoked the quote to draw a parallel between Shakespeare’s rebel character and the executive action, framing the order as a deliberate attack on the legal profession meant to consolidate political power.
“In a cringe-worthy twist on the theatrical phrase ‘Let’s kill all the lawyers,’ EO 14230 takes the approach of ‘Let’s kill the lawyers I don’t like,’” Howell wrote. “Sending the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.”
Judge Howell’s 102-page opinion rejected the government’s arguments in full, ruling that the order unlawfully targeted a law firm for its advocacy and undermined the independence of the legal profession. “No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit,” she wrote.
In an unusual but telling move, Howell directed the U.S. Department of Justice to notify all government agencies of the order and explicitly warned that failure to comply could result in contempt. The instruction suggests Howell anticipated the possibility of noncompliance given the contentious history of the case and the sweeping nature of the executive action.
Perkins Coie, one of the first firms targeted under the administration’s crackdown on politically disfavored firms, had argued from the outset that EO 14230 was an attempt to chill advocacy and punish attorneys for representing certain clients. Monday’s ruling represents a firm judicial repudiation of that strategy and could cast doubt on the legality of similar orders issued against WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and others.
Read more at Above the Law.
