Judge permanently blocks ‘unconstitutional’ Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie

A federal judge on Friday ruled that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting a law firm that represented his 2016 presidential opponent was unconstitutional.

A federal judge on Friday ruled that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting a law firm that represented his 2016 presidential opponent was unconstitutional. US District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the executive order targeting Perkins Coie violated the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, calling it a “blunt exercise of power” that “is not a legitimate use of the powers of the U.S. government or an American President” “The U.S. Constitution affords critical protections against Executive action like that ordered in EO 1423,” Howell, referring to the executive order, wrote in her 100-plus page opinion. “Government officials, including the President, may not ‘subject … individuals to ‘retaliatory actions’ after the fact for having engaged in protected speech.’” The firm, which represented Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was involved in voting rights litigation that Trump opposed, was one of several law firms to sue over Trump’s executive orders that took aim at the firms’ security clearances, their access to federal officials and the contractor relationships their clients have with the government. Perkins Coie and other firms previously secured emergency rulings pausing parts of the Trump directives, but Howell’s ruling Friday night was the first to strike down an executive order targeting a law firm in its entirety and to do so on a permanent basis. Howell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, quotes William Shakespeare, John Adams and the Bill of Rights as she railed against Trump’s directives.