A federal judge permanently blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm WilmerHale on Tuesday.
Trump’s order sought to limit the influence of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP by urging federal agencies to suspend security clearances for the firm’s employees as well as cancel contracts with the organization. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon found that the order violated the Constituion’s First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, as well as separation of powers.
“For the reasons set forth below, I have concluded that this order must be struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional,” Leon wrote. “Indeed, to rule otherwise would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers!”
Leon argued that Trump’s order served as a threat to law firms across the country.
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“If you take on causes disfavored by President Trump, you will be punished!” Leon wrote. “Other firms facing similar executive orders have capitulated to President Trump.”
WilmerHale drew Trump’s ire as the home firm of Robert Mueller, who served as special counsel during Trump’s first term and investigated alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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Federal judges have been a bane to Trump’s agenda in the opening months of his return to the White House, foiling or delaying key aspects of his immigration and economic plans.
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily halted the administration’s effort to kill New York City‘s controversial congestion pricing program as well.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from getting rid of the program and withholding federal funding if the city failed to nix the program.
Another federal judge in Massachusetts chastised senior Trump officials Monday night for failing to comply with his court orders after a group of migrants was deported from the U.S. to South Sudan.
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U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy rejected Trump’s request to amend or withdraw the judge’s earlier decision requiring them to keep in U.S. custody six migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice.
“It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated,” Murphy said in his order, noting that the Trump administration is free to return individuals to have the interviews carried out on U.S. soil.
The salvo comes as Murphy, a federal judge in Boston, presides over a class-action lawsuit from migrants who are challenging deportations to third countries, including South Sudan, El Salvador and other countries, including Costa Rica, Guatemala and others that the administration has reportedly eyed in its ongoing wave of deportations.
Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report
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