BREAKING: Perkins Coie sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over last week's executive order targeting the law firm — which I wrote about over the weekend at Law Dork.
“The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice,” the lawyers for the lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients.”
The firm, represented by Williams & Connelly, is seeking a temporary restraining order.
“The Order—which sanctions a law firm in retaliation for representing clients whom the President views as political opponents—(1) is divorced from any statutory or constitutional source of executive power, and (2) invades the judiciary’s constitutional authority,“ the lawyers write in their memorandum of law supporting the TRO.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, who has set a hearing for 2 p.m. Wednesday on the TRO motion.
Subscribe to Law Dork for more as the case proceeds.