Judge strikes down executive order targeting WilmerHale in latest blow to Trump’s retaliation against major law firms
CNN
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year targeting the elite law firm WilmerHale, becoming the latest jurist to permanently block enforcement of an order they concluded is unconstitutional.
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year targeting the elite law firm WilmerHale, becoming the latest jurist to permanently block enforcement of an order they concluded is unconstitutional. The ruling from US District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, represents the third time this month that a judge in Washington, DC, has ruled against Trump in his efforts to punish law firms that have employed his perceived political enemies or represented clients who have challenged his initiatives. The 73-page preliminary injunction, which is replete with exclamation marks, is a striking rebuke of Trump’s order targeting WilmerHale. The executive order, like others aimed at different firms, denied WilmerHale attorneys access to federal buildings and retaliated against firm clients with government contracts. It also suspended security clearances for lawyers at the firm. “Any one of those sanctions would cause clients to strongly reconsider their engagements with WilmerHale,” Leon wrote. “Taken together, the provisions constitute a staggering punishment for the firm’s protected speech! The Order is intended to, and does in fact, impede the firm’s ability to effectively represent its clients!” The judge said the executive order signed by Trump in late March violates the firm’s First Amendment rights and its right to due process. WilmerHale is one of the largest law firms in Washington — and former professional home to onetime special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and is now retired.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.