Putting Trump's threats in writing doesn't make them law -- Jennifer Rubin

[erronis]

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/putting-trumps-threats-in-writing

A judge demolishes Trump’s assault on law firms

U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell on Friday wrote an opinion for the ages regarding Donald Trump’s tyrannical attempt to punish the Perkins, Coie law firm. Howell began:

“No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’…. When Shakespeare’s character, a rebel leader intent on becoming king … hears this suggestion, he promptly incorporates this tactic as part of his plan to assume power, leading in the same scene to the rebel leader demanding ‘[a]way with him,’ referring to an educated clerk, who ‘can make obligations and write court hand’… Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power.”

In 102 pages, Howell meticulously analyzed Trump’s unconstitutional and tyrannical edict, striking it down in its entirety. (She even invalidated Trump’s revocation of security clearances, which many experts considered a long shot, given the deference usually afforded to presidents on national security.)

“By its terms, this Order stigmatizes and penalizes a particular law firm and its employees—from its partners to its associate attorneys, secretaries, and mailroom attendants—due to the Firm’s representation, both in the past and currently, of clients pursuing claims and taking positions with which the current President disagrees, as well as the Firm’s own speech,” Howell explained. “In a cringe-worthy twist on the theatrical phrase ‘Let’s kill all the lawyers,’ [Executive Order] 14230 takes the approach of ‘Let’s kill the lawyers I don’t like,’ sending the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.”

She also castigated law firms that crumbled while praising the firms that have stood up to Trump. “Only when lawyers make the choice to challenge rather than back down when confronted with government action raising non-trivial constitutional issues can a case be brought to court for judicial review of the legal merits, as was done in this case by plaintiff Perkins Coie LLP, plaintiff’s counsel Williams & Connolly, and the lawyers, firms, organizations, and individuals who submitted amicus briefs in this case.”

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