On March 27, 2025, the President of the United States issued yet another Executive Order, supported by no provision of the U.S. Constitution or any federal statute, for the explicit purpose of punishing an American law firm. The order was entitled “Addressing Risks from WilmerHale LLP.” The President’s order openly seeks to harm WilmerHale for the varied and numerous cases the firm’s lawyers have handled over the years for clients, both paying and pro bono, the President dislikes. The firm’s supposedly offending matters include pro bono cases involving immigration and election integrity issues and lawsuits defending affirmative action in higher education. The matters also include recently filed lawsuits challenging the President’s unlawful dismissal of 8 inspectors general at major federal agencies for simply doing their job. The President’s order also seeks to punish WilmerHale for employing attorneys who participated in the Department of Justice’s investigation into foreign influence into the 2016 presidential election, including the leader of that effort, Robert Mueller.
In particular, section 2 of the order directs the Attorney General and the heads of other executive departments and agencies to suspend any active security clearances held by individuals who work at WilmerHale, and review whether to revoke those clearances permanently. The President’s order bypasses existing legal procedures for granting and revoking security clearances, and identifies individuals without regard to when they joined the law firm and whether they had any personal connection with any of the matters criticized in the order.
Section 3 of the order takes aim at WilmerHale’s finances by pressuring current clients to leave and persuading prospective clients to stay away. The order seeks to accomplish this by directing federal agencies to require government contractors to disclose any business they do with WilmerHale, terminate any contracts in which WilmerHale has been hired to perform services, and reassess all contracts with WilmerHale, or entities doing business with the firm, to determine if they align with American interests.
Section 5 of the order directs federal agencies to limit WilmerHale employees’ access to federal government buildings and stop engaging with the firm’s employees whenever it would be inconsistent with the interests of the United States. It also instructs agency officials to refrain from hiring employees of WilmerHale, absent a waiver from the head of the agency and OPM.
President Trump’s sweeping attack on WilmerHale – and other law firms like it – is unprecedented in our nation’s history and is clearly unconstitutional and unlawful.
The First Amendment protects the rights of WilmerHale, its employees and clients to speak freely, petition the courts and other government institutions to redress grievances, and associate with counsel of their choice without facing retaliation or discrimination by federal officials. The U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the bedrock law that government cannot use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression or seek to coerce private parties to accomplish those forbidden ends.
The President’s order violates the separation of powers twice over. The President’s role is to enforce the law, not to create new law or adjudicate litigation conduct before the courts. No statute or constitutional provision empowers him to unilaterally sanction WilmerHale in the manner he seeks to. That is unsurprising. Any legislative effort to restrict lawyers’ access to government buildings, services and materials simply for representing disfavored clients or causes is patently unconstitutional. Any executive branch effort to deter private attorneys from representing certain clients or advancing particular arguments threatens to severely impair the operation of the courts because judges depend on attorneys to present all reasonable and well-grounded arguments on their clients’ behalf so those judges can make informed decisions.
If that is not enough, the President’s order flagrantly violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It imposes severe consequences without notice or any opportunity to be heard, it uses vague, ambiguous, and expansive language that does not adequately inform WilmerHale, or its clients, of the conduct that triggered these extraordinary sanctions in the first place, and it unfairly singles out the firm based on its perceived connections to disfavored individuals and causes. The order also violates the right to counsel protected by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and imposes unconstitutional conditions on federal contracts and expenditures.
It is important to remember that the First Amendment states, among other things, that Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The Fifth Amendment states that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The Sixth Amendment states that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. And it is a core principle of the American legal system that no one should be penalized for merely defending or prosecuting a lawsuit. F. D. Rich Co. v. United States ex rel. Indus. Lumber Co., 417 U.S. 116, 129 (1974). Yet President Trump’s order against WilmerHale violates all of these provisions of the U.S. Constitution and this bedrock principal of American law.
It is remarkable that a President of the United States, who took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, would issue not one but multiple executive orders violating numerous specific provisions of that very same Constitution, untold provisions of federal law, and bedrock principals of American law. But there it is. He’s done it again.
So what can we do to oppose an unlawful and corrupt executive? Challenge the order, of course, and join the amicus curiae brief filed on behalf of WilmerHale. Which is exactly what Finkel Law Group has done.
The work done by amici is indispensable to the success of our system of republican self-government founded upon the rule of law. Lawyers of various persuasions have joined the effort. Some attorneys who have joined the fight advocate for the interests of the nation’s leading business and financial institutions. Others advocate for the interests of small businesses, non-profits or consumers. All attorneys depend on an impartial justice system to advance their clients’ interests. Lawyers at these many firms hold a wide range of political, social and economic views, but are united in their support for the integrity of the adversarial system of justice and the rule of law.
History offers indelible reminders of the perils associated with government intrusion into the autonomy of the legal system and with political retribution aimed at lawyers thought to stand in the way of a regime’s political objectives. In too many countries across the globe government regimes have disbarred, prosecuted, jailed and disappeared lawyers who dare to represent opposition candidates or challenge government action, with predictable results for the rule of law and the integrity of the legal profession in those nations.
It has not happened here, yet. But it could.
The attorneys at Finkel Law Group, like every lawyer at every law firm who has joined the amici have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and discharge the obligations of the legal profession to the best of our ability. That oath obligates all of us, no matter our political views, to be faithful custodians to our nations’ commitment to the rule of law. A commitment that allows all of us to know we can turn to the courts to vindicate our fundamental civil rights and those of our clients.
So once again every lawyer in this nation is called upon to standby a law firm that finds itself in the cross-hairs of Donald Trump. A president who makes no secret of his desire to punish WilmerHale, and all lawyers like them, for its past and present constitutionally protected advocacy for clients before the federal courts that he simply dislikes. We therefore feel a special responsibility to stand up now to the unprecedent threat posed by the executive order issued against WilmerHale, and other law firms like it.
Please read the amicus curiae here. And join us.