A federal appeals court on Monday handed the Trump administration a procedural victory in its fight to revive executive orders targeting several major law firms, allowing the government to continue its appeal of lower court rulings that struck down the measures.
In a brief order, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the Justice Department’s request to withdraw an earlier motion that would have voluntarily dismissed the case, clearing the way for the administration to pursue its challenge to the rulings blocking the orders after a public flip-flop on whether it wanted the legal battle to continue.
The short appeals court order came in a consolidated appeal involving lawsuits brought by several prominent firms, including Perkins Coie, against the DOJ and other federal officials.
“Upon consideration of appellants’ motion to withdraw their motion to voluntarily dismiss these appeals, it is ordered that the motion to withdraw be granted,” the court wrote in the one-page order directing the clerk to update the docket. The decision allows the Trump administration to continue the case unabated.
The orders applied to Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey and seek to restrict the firms’ access to federal buildings and officials, suspend security clearances held by their attorneys, and require government contractors to disclose whether they had hired the firms.
However, the administration’s legal strategy has shifted several times in recent weeks, creating a web of confusion and uncertainty about the fate of the law firms’ executive order legal challenge.
It all started on March 2, when DOJ lawyers told the D.C. Circuit that they planned to voluntarily dismiss the appeals of lower court decisions invalidating the executive orders. But within 24 hours, the department reversed course, asking the court to withdraw that dismissal request so the appeals could proceed.
In a March 6 filing that was already due just days after the government’s back-and-forth reversal, DOJ lawyers filed a 369-page joint appendix to the appeals court explaining why it should overturn the lower court that sided against the executive order, while defending the scope of the president’s Article II authority.
“Courts cannot tell the President what to say. Courts cannot tell the President what not to say,” Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli wrote in part. “They cannot tell the President how to handle national security clearances. And they cannot interfere with Presidential directives instructing agencies to investigate racial discrimination that violates federal civil rights laws.”
The DOJ has argued the appeal in this case has a direct through-line with a separate executive order targeting the revocation of specific security clearances, including a pending appeal involving attorney Mark Zaid, who represented the Ukrainian whistleblower connected to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. A district judge in January ordered Zaid’s clearance restored, and the matter is currently on a separate appeals track.
It is not immediately clear why the DOJ initially planned to retreat from defending the executive orders. President Donald Trump reportedly said “I never signed off on that” and ordered the DOJ to resume defending the executive orders, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Federal district court judges initially blocked the measures in a series of sharply worded rulings, with one judge describing an order as “cringe-worthy” and another likening it to a “screed.”
The law firms still challenging the orders, meanwhile, have argued they are being subjugated to unconstitutional retaliation that punished them for representing clients and employing lawyers who had opposed Trump.
DOJ REVERSES COURSE AND WILL DEFEND TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS TARGETING LAW FIRMS
At least five additional law firms, including Paul Weiss, had the order against their firms rescinded after agreeing to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in legal services supporting causes backed by the administration.
With Monday’s order, the case will now proceed in the D.C. Circuit, where the Trump administration will attempt to persuade the appellate court to reinstate the executive orders and reverse the lower court rulings that invalidated them.
