{"id":95014,"date":"2025-04-07T13:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T17:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=95014"},"modified":"2025-04-07T20:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:21:17","slug":"several-hundred-law-professors-file-amicus-brief-defending-biglaw-firms-against-trumps-executive-order-attacks-lenin-laus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2025\/04\/07\/several-hundred-law-professors-file-amicus-brief-defending-biglaw-firms-against-trumps-executive-order-attacks-lenin-laus\/","title":{"rendered":"Several Hundred Law Professors File Amicus Brief Defending Biglaw Firms Against Trump\u2019s Executive Order Attacks [Lenin Laus]"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #800000;\">From DSC: <\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">I value our constitutional democracy and I want to help preserve it. If you are an American, I encourage you to do the same. I&#8217;m not interested in living under an authoritarian government. The founders of this great nation developed an important document that integrated a system of checks and balances between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. The rule of law was important then, and it should still be important now. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m posting the following two items.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jdjournal.com\/2025\/04\/07\/several-hundred-law-professors-file-amicus-brief-defending-biglaw-firms-against-trumps-executive-order-attacks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Several Hundred Law Professors File Amicus Brief Defending Biglaw Firms Against Trump\u2019s Executive Order Attacks<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; from jdjournal.com by Maria Lenin Laus<\/p>\n<p>In an unprecedented show of solidarity, over\u00a0<strong>300 law professors from leading American law schools<\/strong>\u00a0have filed an\u00a0<strong>amicus brief<\/strong>\u00a0condemning\u00a0<strong>former President Donald Trump\u2019s executive orders targeting major law firms<\/strong>. The professors argue that the orders\u2014issued in retaliation for the firms\u2019 clients, diversity initiatives, and legal work opposing Trump policies\u2014represent a\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>dangerous abuse of executive power<\/strong>\u00a0and a\u00a0<strong>direct violation of constitutional protections<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<\/span>&#8230;<br \/>\nThe amicus brief, filed in support of the law firms\u2019 challenge, was signed by professors from nearly every top-tier U.S. law school, including\u00a0<strong>Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and the University of Chicago<\/strong>. The professors argue that Trump\u2019s orders:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"\">Violate the\u00a0<strong>First Amendment<\/strong>\u00a0by penalizing firms for the viewpoints they express through advocacy and representation;<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Undermine the\u00a0<strong>rule of law<\/strong>\u00a0by discouraging legal professionals from taking on controversial or unpopular clients;<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Set a\u00a0<strong>dangerous precedent<\/strong>\u00a0for political retaliation against attorneys and the institutions of justice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/georgetownlaw_deans-letter-3-26-2025-activity-7310731792498511874-6erj?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAHSQ2kBfElT_TLATvS_bcdFygMCtJ8a8Iw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Law school deans around the country react to Trump\u2019s undercutting the legal foundations\/principles of our nation<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8212; from linkedin.com by Georgetown University Law Center<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&#8220;We write to reaffirm basic principles: The government should not punish lawyers and law firms for the clients they represent, absent specific findings that such representation was illegal or unethical. Punishing lawyers for their representation and advocacy violates the First Amendment and undermines the Sixth Amendment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We thus speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em>For related postings, also see:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-third-term-constitution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.904.Xc8L.bSMnaWij5caA&amp;smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>President\u2019s Third Term Talk Defies Constitution and Tests Democracy<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8212; from nytimes.com by Peter Baker <em><span style=\"color: #800000;\">(DSC: This is a free\/gifted article for you.)<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em>The 22nd Amendment is clear: President Trump has to give up his office after his second term. But his refusal to accept that underscores how far he is willing to consider going to consolidate power.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThis is in my mind a culmination of what he has already started, which is <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>a methodical effort to destabilize and undermine our democracy so that he can assume much greater power,\u201d<\/strong><\/span> Representative Daniel Goldman, Democrat of New York and lead counsel during Mr. Trump\u2019s\u00a0first impeachment, said in an interview.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cA lot of people are not talking about it because it\u2019s not the most pressing issue of that particular day,\u201d he said on Friday as stock markets were plunging in reaction to Mr. Trump\u2019s newly declared trade war. <strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">But an attack on democracy, he added, \u201cis actually in motion and people need to recognize that it is not hypothetical or speculative anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Mr. Trump\u2019s autocratic tendencies and disregard for constitutional norms are well documented. In this second term alone, he has already sought to\u00a0overrule birthright citizenship\u00a0embedded in\u00a0the 14th Amendment, effectively co-opted the power of Congress to determine what money will be spent or agencies closed, purged the uniformed leadership of the armed forces to enforce greater personal loyalty and punished dissent in academia, the news media, the legal profession and the federal bureaucracy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jordanfurlong.substack.com\/p\/biglaw-gives-up-on-its-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>BigLaw gives up on its future<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8212; from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong<br \/>\n<em>By putting business ahead of the rule of law when faced with assaults on their independence, many large US law firms have tarnished their reputations. Tomorrow&#8217;s lawyers could make them pay the price.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Two young Skadden associates,\u00a0Rachel Cohen\u00a0and\u00a0Brenna Trout Frey, resigned from the firm, the former before its deal with Trump and the latter afterwards. \u201cIf my employer cannot stand up for the rule of law,\u201d wrote Ms. Frey, \u201cthen I cannot ethically continue to work for them.\u201d There might\u2019ve been other public resignations I haven\u2019t seen, but I\u2019m confident there have been private ones from both firms, as well as intense efforts by other associates to find positions elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">This is the risk these firms are taking: It\u00a0matters\u00a0to young lawyers when their law firms fail to defend the rule of law. And it matters especially to young lawyers who are women and members of visible minorities when law firms\u00a0jettison\u00a0their vaunted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under pressure from the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From DSC: I value our constitutional democracy and I want to help preserve it. If you are an American, I encourage you to do the same. I&#8217;m not interested in living under an authoritarian government. The founders of this great nation developed an important document that integrated a system of checks and balances between the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[851,473,72,403,71,37,35,825,837,285,353,480,321],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bias-diversity-equity-inclusion-dei","category-canada","category-daniel-s-christian","category-ethics","category-faculty-staff","category-future","category-game-changing-environment","category-law-schools","category-legal-operations","category-legislation-legislatures","category-moralsvalues","category-society","category-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95014"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95036,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95014\/revisions\/95036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}