The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested to reverse its motion to end its appeals of lower-court rulings that blocked President Trump’s executive orders targeting four law firms, a day after it said it would drop its defence.
The DOJ filed a motion on Tuesday (3 March) in the US appeals court in Washington DC that sought to withdraw its Monday motion to voluntarily dismiss the appeals.
Lawyers for the four firms – Susman Godfrey, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block – opposed the move, saying in the filing that “under no circumstances should the government’s unexplained about-face provide a basis for an extension of its brief”.
The DOJ faced a Friday deadline to outline its appeals in the ongoing cases brought by the firms, and the appeals court has not yet signed off on the initial motion to dismiss.
The DOJ said in the motion it was its “prerogative” to pursue the appeals.
The rulings stemmed from executive orders issued by President Donald Trump early last year that accused the firms of “weaponising” the justice system against him and his allies and engaging in discriminatory diversity and inclusion policies.
The orders sought to undercut the firms’ businesses by rescinding security clearances for their lawyers, barring them from accessing federal buildings and threatening their clients’ government contracts.
Last year, four federal judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents threw out the orders in separate rulings, on the grounds they were unconstitutional.
Susman Godfrey, which secured a landmark settlement for Dominion Voting Systems in a lawsuit against Fox News over false claims it aired about Dominion’s involvement in the 2020 election, said in a Tuesday statement published by Original Jurisdiction: “Yesterday evening, the administration told the court that it gave up and wouldn’t even try to defend its unconstitutional executive orders. Today, it reversed course.”
“Regardless, Susman Godfrey will defend itself and the rule of law – without equivocation.”
Perkins Coie told the same publication that “hours after asking the court to dismiss its appeal, the Department of Justice has abruptly reversed course and moved to continue its defence of the unconstitutional executive orders. It offered no explanation to either the parties or the court for its reversal. We remain committed to defending our firm, our people and our clients”.
The executive order targeting the firm cited its hire of private research company Fusion GPS while representing Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, which the administration claimed “manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election”.
The executive orders and a related investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into whether the hiring policies of 20 firms were discriminatory sparked an unprecedented clash between an array of top US law firms and the presidency.
Controversially, nine firms, including Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, pledged a total of $940m in free legal work to avoid similar executive orders.
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