AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Big law is starting to fight back. Two major law firms sued the Trump administration today. They're asking a judge to block executive orders that punish those firms because of their clients and the lawyers that they hired. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been following these cases and joins us now to talk more about them. Hi, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: OK, so let's just start with who sued today. Tell us.
JOHNSON: These are two big law firms, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. They filed cases today in the federal court right here in Washington, D.C. They say the Trump administration violated the Constitution when the president moved against them recently. The executive orders from the White House took some pretty drastic steps. The orders yanked security clearances from lawyers, barred them from entering government buildings.
CHANG: Wow.
JOHNSON: Both Jenner and Wilmer say they could suffer irreparable harm if those executive actions are allowed to stand, so they're asking a judge to block the orders.
CHANG: Wait, what do we know about why these firms even caught the attention of President Trump?
JOHNSON: Well, the White House has been on a campaign against law firms for a few weeks now. President Trump has accused them of helping to weaponize the justice system against his administration. Trump actually called out pro bono work the firms had done for immigrants and LGBTQ people. In the case of Jenner, he blasted a lawyer who helped investigate Trump and who remains a fierce critic of the president. Here's Trump at the signing ceremony with one of his aides this week.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And Andrew Weissmann is the main culprit...
WILL SCHARF: He's certainly a...
TRUMP: ...With respect to this firm.
SCHARF: He is one of a number of reasons that we believe this executive order is warranted.
TRUMP: He's a bad guy.
JOHNSON: That lawyer, Andrew Weissmann, has not worked at Jenner & Block for four years. And as for Wilmer, that law firm employed former special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the Russia investigation. It also employed two other lawyers who work for Mueller. Wilmer says it also represented the Democratic National Committee.
CHANG: OK, well, it's still early in the process, but are there any hints, Carrie, about how a judge might weigh some of these legal claims?
JOHNSON: We have some evidence. Judge Beryl Howell here in D.C. recently sided with another law firm called Perkins Coie after it sued over a similar executive order from Trump. She said that action sent chills down her spine and threatened to undermine the legal system because it interfered with peoples' right to a lawyer. These new cases today have been assigned to different judges who have been on the bench since the George W. Bush administration.
But this is not necessarily a partisan issue. In fact, the Wilmer law firm that sued today is being represented by Paul Clement, who was solicitor general under President Bush. Clement said today, this case is absolutely critical to the adversarial system of justice and the rule of law.
CHANG: I mean, Carrie, there has been a lot of attention on the broader legal industry these days and how it's responding to pressure from President Trump. What are you hearing on this front generally?
JOHNSON: Well, the president has just announced a settlement with the huge Skadden law firm, where he said the firm agreed to do about $100 million of pro bono work for causes the administration supports. That marks the second such settlement after the law firm Paul, Weiss reached a similar deal. Walter Olson's a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. He's been following this with some concern.
WALTER OLSON: It is so central to being able to be a good lawyer, to be at the top of your craft as a lawyer, to be fearless and to be able to go up against the most powerful interests of which the most powerful is the federal government. And if they can't do that, what can they do for their client?
CHANG: That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thank you, Carrie.
JOHNSON: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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