Attorney General Charity Clark joined an open letter to the legal community yesterday, expressing support for law firms that have fought back against President Trump’s unconstitutional attempts to target law firms for advocacy and representation the Trump Administration disfavors. The letter also expresses the coalition’s profound disappointment that several of the country’s largest law firms have capitulated in the face of these dangerous attacks on the rule of law.
The open letter to the legal community comes as President Trump has issued unconstitutional executive orders targeting several law firms for their advocacy and representation, and as some of the nation’s largest law firms have struck “deals” with the President and his Administration that commit the firms to provide free legal services to support the Trump Administration’s priorities.
“An attorney zealously advocates for her client, even if the arguments in the case are unpopular. That’s Lawyering 101,” said Attorney General Clark. “President Trump’s executive orders threaten lawyers that he will retaliate against them if they represent the opposition. I would encourage my fellow lawyers to remember their professional obligations and remain steadfast against threats like these.”
In the letter published yesterday, the coalition of attorneys general explains that President Trump’s executive orders plainly violate the Constitution. The executive orders retaliate against lawyers based on protected speech and association, and they discriminate based on viewpoint. The orders also are inconsistent with the right to effective counsel, offend basic principles of due process, and undermine bedrock rule-of-law principles. The letter points out that these unconstitutional attacks on the legal profession are an attack on our justice system and pave the way towards authoritarianism.
The coalition highlights that four law firms – Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey – have filed suit against the Trump Administration for the President’s illegal actions and have succeeded in obtaining court orders temporarily blocking these orders. The coalition, including Attorney General Clark, filed amicus briefs in these suits.
The letter calls upon other law firms and lawyers to join the four law firms who have fought back against these unconstitutional executive orders, along with their counsel, current and former General Counsel of leading companies, former judges, law professors, and the more than 800 other law firms that have joined amicus briefs in those cases. The letter urges other law firms and lawyers to reject the path taken by the firms that have capitulated to President Trump, and it invites law firms to stand together with the coalition of attorneys general in preserving the integrity of our legal system.
Joining Attorney General Clark in signing the open letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
A copy of the letter is available here.
CONTACT: Amelia Vath, Outreach and Communications Coordinator, 802-828-3171