DOJ moves to drop defense of Trump's executive orders targeting law firms

Four different district court judges found President Trump's executive orders targeting the law firms were unconstitutional. Politics Justice Department moves to drop defense of Trump's executive orders targeting law firms By Jacob Rosen, Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump's 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Read Full Bio Jacob Rosen, Melissa Quinn Melissa Quinn Senior Reporter, Politics Melissa Quinn is a senior reporter for CBSNews.com, where she covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Read Full Bio Melissa Quinn Updated on: March 2, 2026 / 8:24 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — The Justice Department on Monday moved to drop its legal defense of President Trump's executive orders that targeted several high-profile law firms, according to court filings.In papers filed with the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration said it would be voluntarily dismissing appeals of lower court decisions that found the executive orders punishing the four firms were unconstitutional. The firms are Perkins Coie; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP; Susman Godfrey and Jenner & Block.While the Trump administration will no longer defend the executive orders against the four firms, it successfully extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services from nine others that cut deals with the White House in an effort to head-off directives targeting them."The government's decision to dismiss its appeal is clearly the right one," a spokesperson for WilmerHale said in a statement. "As we said from the outset, our challenge to the unlawful Executive Order was about defending our clients' constitutional right to retain the counsel of their choosing and defending the rule of law. We are pleased these foundational principles were vindicated."Susman Godrey said the Trump administration "capitulated," bringing to an end what it said was an attack not only on the firm, but also the rule of law."We fought for ourselves, but we fought for bigger things, too: for a Constitution that protects our freedoms; for a legal profession that depends on equal justice under the law; and for the people across this country who refuse to back down in the face of an Administration that seeks to silence and intimidate them — lawyers and non-lawyers alike," the firm said. "We did not seek this fight, but neither did we run from it. And we won."Jenner & Block said in a statement: "The government's decision to withdraw its appeals makes permanent the rulings of four federal judges that the executive orders targeting law firms, including Jenner & Block, were unconstitutional.  This chapter has once again confirmed what has been true of Jenner for more than  a  century — we  will  always zealously advocate for our clients and put them first, without compromise." The Justice Department declined to comment.The cases arose out of a series of executive orders that Mr. Trump signed in March and April of last year that sought to punish several law firms because of certain hires and legal work.The president rescinded one of the measures, against Paul, Weiss, after the firm pledged to provide tens of millions of dollars in pro bono work to support White House initiatives. Mr. Trump's directive had singled out the work of Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked at the firm and who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office into Mr. Trump's finances before he became president.Each of the orders targeted the law firms' clients, access to federal buildings and officials, and security clearances held by their employees. In the case of Perkins Coie, Mr. Trump attacked the firm because of its representation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign and hiring of a research firm that retained former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the infamous "Steele Dossier."WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, meanwhile, had employed lawyers who worked on the Justice Department's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Among those was Robert Mueller, the special counsel who led the probe, at WilmerHale, and Andrew Weissmann, who was hired by Jenner & Block. Both left their respective firms several years ago.The fourth firm that Mr. Trump sought to sanction, Susman Godfrey, represented Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which stemmed from unfounded claims about the 2020 election that were aired by the network. Fox and Dominion reached a $787 million settlement agreement in 2023.Some of the law firms had also been involved in litigation challenging aspects of Mr. Trump's second-term agenda, including his attempt to withhold federal funds from medical institutions that provide medical treatments to young people experiencing gender dysphoria and his firings of inspector generals ac