Trump & Co. believe in intimidating anyone stepping to them …
Including….
Lawyers and Law Firms defending people challenging Trump & Co.’s actions….
As in other cases….
Federal Judges HAVE BEEN much of the ONLY REAL counter to Trump’s actions…
The president’s latest loss came this week, when a federal judge in Washington temporarily blocked Trump’s efforts to strip a security clearance from national security attorney Mark Zaid. In 2019, Zaid represented the government whistleblower who accused Trump of trying to pressure Ukraine for damaging information about his political opponents. The accusations led to Trump’s first impeachment.
In his Tuesday order, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali found that Zaid was likely to succeed on his claim that revoking Zaid’s security clearance violated the attorney’s constitutional free speech and due process rights. The order notes that Trump has called Zaid a “sleazeball” and said the lawyer should be sued for treason.
“This case involves the government’s retribution against a lawyer because he represented whistleblowers and other clients who complained about the government,” wrote Ali, who was appointed by President Joe Biden.
The case should not have been difficult, Zaid said in an interview. “But it’s surrounded by all sorts of constitutional analysis because of the assertion by the Trump administration that it has the power to do anything it wants without any oversight whatsoever.”
He compared his situation — as well as Trump’s targeting of law firms more generally — to the line from William Shakespeare’s play “Henry the VI, Part 2”: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The line, spoken by one of the play’s villains, is about subverting lawyers “fighting for rule of law,” he said….
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Though some law firms cut deals with the administration to keep their clearances, others successfully sued to block the actions.
This year, federal judges in Washington blocked the administration’s attempts to suspend security clearances from the law firms Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, WilmerHale and Perkins Coie. In each case, the judges found that the orders were retaliatory and violated the firms’ constitutional free speech rights….
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Should his case reach the Supreme Court, Zaid said the issue could transcend judicial ideology. No matter which way they lean, the justices “recognize the importance and role that lawyers play in society,” he said. “And what the Trump administration is doing with clearance revocations … is a direct attack on our ability to enforce exactly what judges enforce: the rule of law.”
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