Federal judges in DC partially blocked two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump aimed at the law firms Jenner and Block and Wilmerhale, temporarily stopping Trump’s attempts to punish the prominent law firms associated with their political enemies.
In a lawsuit filed by Jenner and Block, the DC district judge, John Bates, described Trump’s executive order, which aims to strip the lawyers of the companies of any security authorization that may have and severely restrict any business they may have before the federal government, as “worrying” and “disturbing.” He said he is aimed at the rights and rights of the company’s first amendment and its employees to due process.
Bates, appointed by former President George W. Bush, temporarily ordered the administration to enforce aspects of the order who seek to restrict government officials to participate with Jenner and Block officials, after he said that the Government could not provide substantive responses on how the employees of the firm threaten national security.
President Donald Trump shows an executive order signed by announcing tariffs on car imports at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on March 26, 2025.
Mandel and/AFP
The judge said that lawyers representing Jenner and Block showed that they were probably being attacked on the basis of their rights protected by freedom of expression, and that they would suffer irreparable economic damage if it was completely implemented.
Later, on Friday, Judge Richard Leon also granted a partially temporary restriction order that ordered another executive order signed by Trump aimed at the Wilmerhal law firm.
Leon, also designated by former President George W. Bush, said several parts of Trump’s order clearly show “retaliation actions based on the perceived point of view” of Wilmerhale employees.
“There is no doubt that this action of retaliation cools discourse and legal defense, or that qualifies as constitutional damage,” Leon said in his written order, after an audience on Friday night.
Leon is now the third federal judge in greatly accepting arguments of law firms led by Trump that his orders are probably not constitutional, and that if he is implemented, Leon said, Wilmerhale “faces paralyzing losses and his own survival is at stake.”
Both law firms filed the claim in the Federal Court of DC on Friday to block executive orders, the same day that another important law firm reached a $ 100 million agreement to prevent an executive Trump order of Trump.
The lawsuits accuse Trump of participating in a radical campaign to intimidate the main law firms that have represented the plaintiffs who currently demand the administration, or who have represented or at a time used to those who do not like.
Trump’s executive order threatened his future and “the legal system itself,” Jenner and Block said in their demand.
“These orders send a clear message to the legal profession: to leave certain adverse representations to the government and renounce the critics of the administration, or suffer the consequences,” said Jenner and Block’s demand. “Orders also try to press companies and individuals to question or even abandon their associations with their chosen lawyer and relax bringing legal challenges.”
The two companies are the last companies that seek to counteract what has been a rapid attack of the White House that seeks to attack individual companies that have hired or represented Trump’s political enemies.
Meanwhile, Trump said Friday that the Skadden law firm, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom reached an agreement to avoid one of its executive orders by providing $ 100 million in Pro Bono work during the Trump administration, among other guarantees.
The measure has sent shock waves through the legal community. The White House is prepared to go to greater law firms, the sources tell ABC News, and there are ongoing discussions among the main advisors about the strategy associated with possibly the negotiations with more of them.
Legal scholars have said that there is little legal precedent for Trump’s war against the great law, which has created a chilling effect throughout the legal community, and most will certainly have a chilling effect on their opponents that will need legal representation against him.
The legal actions of the companies are presented after the successful effort of the law firm Perkins Coie, which at the beginning of this month assured a court order that blocks a similar executive action signed by Trump.
