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BumRushDaShow

(155,813 posts)
Mon Jun 16, 2025, 04:04 PM Jun 16

The American Bar Association Is Suing Over Trump's Extortion Of Law Firms [View all]

Source: Huff Post

Jun 16, 2025, 03:10 PM EDT


The American Bar Association, the largest national group representing lawyers, sued in federal court to permanently stop President Donald Trump’s extortion of law firms on Monday. Soon after taking office for his second term, Trump issued a series of executive orders targeting seven law firms with punitive sanctions for political reasons. The orders acted as an opening salvo in an attack on Big Law to pressure law firms into “deals” with the administration that would restrain them from challenging Trump’s policies.

After Trump hit the venerable New York firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with an executive order on March 14 banning its lawyers from contact with the federal government and access to federal buildings, and stripping its lawyers of security clearances, which would have effectively ended its ability to work, the firm’s partners agreed to an informal deal to make the order go away. The firm pledged $40 million in pro bono services to the administration and to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices. It also removed nearly all mention of its pro bono work challenging the immigration policies of the first Trump administration from its web site.

In the following weeks, eight law firms entered into preemptive deals with the administration to avoid the threat of a punitive order by pledging a total of $900 million in pro bono services. A chill settled over Big Law as the firms that entered into these deals, and others fearful of being targeted, curtailed or halted their pro bono work on causes that might anger Trump, in particular providing services to immigrants and immigrant rights groups.

Trump’s extortion of law firms via executive order “is unlawful,” the ABA lawsuit states. “Our Constitution does not vest the Executive Branch with the power to point to individual lawyers or law firms, declare by executive fiat that their work or their internal policies are ‘against the national interest’ or otherwise illegal or improper, and direct (or threaten) executive action against that lawyer or law firm.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aba-trump-law-firms_n_68506313e4b0534654df30d2?origin=top-ad-recirc



Link to LAWSUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674.1.0.pdf
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TY Kick for Law Firms! Cha Jun 16 #1
Awesome, but can we push this through the system during his term is over? JohnnyRingo Jun 16 #2
Bar Association has to sue a sitting US president to stop committing crimes against law firms. Irish_Dem Jun 16 #3
Yeah because, it seems, some law firms won't do it for themselves. Bev54 Jun 16 #7
Officers of court are not supposed to take part in criminal activities. Irish_Dem Jun 16 #8
I wonder if anyone will sue these firms for that reason? Bev54 Jun 16 #9
Report them to the local bar association? Irish_Dem Jun 16 #10
Yes, furthering a crime, even against yourself (extortion,) is a federal felony PSPS Jun 16 #16
They cannot claim they did not know it was a crime. Irish_Dem Jun 16 #17
Precisely. It boggles the mind especially that there are former federal prosecutors at the firms who agreed. PSPS Jun 17 #21
Would they advise their clients to go along with extortion, blackmail, etc. Irish_Dem Jun 17 #22
There markodochartaigh Jun 16 #4
Maybe they should focus some of their battles on John Robert's wife wolfie001 Jun 16 #5
I love what I read LilElf70 Jun 16 #6
The ABA has the best Harvard lawyers. multigraincracker Jun 16 #11
I'll reserve judgment until I see actual, provable, and significant results. calimary Jun 16 #15
Kicked and recommended Uncle Joe Jun 16 #12
Can't the ABA disbar any of the administration's lawyers who advocate for, or actually engage in Scalded Nun Jun 16 #13
About damn time for the ABA to get busy on this. (nt) Paladin Jun 16 #14
American Bar Association sues Trump administration over law firm sanctions LetMyPeopleVote Jun 16 #18
Susman Godfrey is counsel for the ABA in this lawsuit LetMyPeopleVote Jun 16 #19
When I first posted this BumRushDaShow Jun 16 #20
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