The Pathetic, Cowardly Collapse of Big Law
Trump’s actions are an attempt to tilt the scales of justice by using the raw power of government coercion—and they’re working.
By Paul Rosenzweig
Updated at 9:00 a.m. ET on March 27, 2025
Few Americans will have much sympathy for lawyers whose annual income reaches seven figures. But big law firms—especially those now under attack by the Trump administration—do crucial work, representing nonprofits and individual clients who face major legal consequences, both civil and criminal, for resisting Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Without lawyers to represent them, those opposing Trump’s policies will, in effect, be legally disarmed, allowing his authoritarian impulses to run rampant.
Trump began his attack on Big Law with a presidential memorandum directed against the law firm of Covington & Burling ordering that all federal contracts with the firm be reviewed, presumably for termination, and that any of the firm’s lawyers and employees who aided Special Counsel Jack Smith in his investigations be reviewed for “their roles and responsibilities, if any, in the weaponization of the judicial process,” on pain of their security clearances.
Trump followed this with an executive order against the law firm of Perkins Coie (one of whose former partners, Marc Elias, represented Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign) that is far more sweeping. It orders a review to determine whether the security clearance of all lawyers and employees of the firm ought to be stripped, and a review—presumably for possible termination—of federal contracts not only with Perkins Coie itself but also with any client even merely represented by the firm.
This had an immediate, and presumably intentional, effect: Perkins Coie began bleeding clients, threatening its continued viability. The EO also seeks to limit federal hiring of former Perkins personnel, their access to federal property, and their “engaging” with government personnel.
Rest at link above.
Big Law Fights Back
Joyce Vance
Mar 28, 2025
Unless you’ve practiced in Big Law, they’re probably just names: Perkins Coie, Covington and Burling, Paul Weiss. They are the law firms Donald Trump has attacked, using the power of the presidency in a venal form of personal revenge, by way of Executive Orders (EOs) that are so harsh clients have left firms and some are rumored to be in dire straits. Yesterday it was Wilmer, Hale, targeted explicitly because they hired two lawyers—the EO called it “welcomed” them—who had worked on the Mueller Investigation, which concluded Trump had engaged in behavior that could be prosecuted, but declined to do so because of a DOJ policy prohibition of indicting a sitting president.
Some of the firms have or are in the process of negotiating a way back into Trump’s good graces. But Wilmer, Hale, shortly after the EO against it became public put out this statement, “Our firm has a long-standing tradition of representing a wide range of clients, including in matters against administrations of both parties,” they said. As for Mueller, they applauded his “long, distinguished career in public service, from his time as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam to his leadership of the FBI in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks.” No backing down.
Early Friday morning, Jenner and Block sued a comprehensive list of defendants including the United States, agencies implementing the EO against it, and individual officials including Cabinet secretaries, explaining in their complaint that: “The Order threatens not only Jenner, but also its clients and the legal system itself. Our Constitution, top to bottom, forbids attempts by the government to punish citizens and lawyers based on the clients they represent, the positions they advocate, the opinions they voice, and the people with whom they associate.”
My podcast co-host Jill Wine-Banks, a former Jenner and Block partner, told me this morning, “This is who Jenner and Block is. Leaders in the true meaning of the legal profession. Proud to have been a partner. All law firms should join to fight the attempt to end the rule of law by destroying law firms and courts.”
The courts are the branch of government that is trying to preserve the balance and prevent Trump from usurping power that does not belong in the hands of the presidency. Trump has been attacking the courts. Attacking the lawyers is part of that—courts can’t act on their own, they act only when lawyers bring cases. Jenner and Block, asking for a TRO against enforcement of the EO against them, made this point, “These orders send a clear message to the legal profession: Cease certain representations adverse to the government and renounce the Administration’s critics—or suffer the consequences.” They call the administration’s actions an attempt to keep lawyers from challenging the administration’s illegal actions in court.
Wilmer Hale filed a lawsuit moments later. They are represented by conservative icon and former George W. Bush solicitor general Paul Clement
Glad to know somebody’s fighting back.
WIRED
@WIRED
NEW: The doctor behind breakthrough Parkinson’s research was among the scientists purged from the National Institutes of Health, the US’s leading medical research agency.
https://x.com/WIRED/status/1907225125264429453
i Expose Racists & Pedos
@SeeRacists
‼️A Black Woman Was Shocked After RACISTS Labeled Her As ‘KING KONG’ On Her Blood Testing Kit During A Doctors Visit 😱
https://x.com/SeeRacists/status/1906831044965494824
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com
Follow
“I don’t want a Disney vacation of our history! I don’t a whitewashed history, I don’t want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness” — 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥
philip lewis
@Phil_Lewis_
‘Target suffers eighth week of foot-traffic losses since caving on DEI
Costco, which resisted demands to end DEI, extends its streak of foot-traffic gains to 13.’
https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1907182568174170199
Yoni Appelbaum
@YAppelbaum
NEW: In a court filing this evening, the Trump administration said that it had mistakenly deported a Maryland father to a notorious Salvadoran prison due to an “administrative error.”
https://x.com/YAppelbaum/status/1906893341939339710
Trump administration pulls $42M from Michigan schools for pre-approved projects, state says
The federal education department has pulled back more than $40 million in funds that were destined for more than two dozen Michigan school districts, the state said.
The money, totaling nearly $42 million, would have been spent on the heating, ventilation, windows, air conditioning, and other building infrastructure for 27 different districts, the news release sent Monday said.
School districts applying for the money had already received approval from the U.S. Education Department.
full story here: https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/trump-administration-pulls-40m-from-michigan-schools-pre-approved-projects
Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) posted at 0:01 PM on Sat, Mar 29, 2025:
One of the very best examples of “America can still do hard things” was Operation Warp Speed
It’s chief scientific architect was Peter Marks
Peter was pushed out of the FDA by RFK Jr. yesterday
(https://x.com/ashishkjha/status/1906029080920678706?t=sEe1kvXxWTT-BixI5BpK4w&s=03)
Mark Salter (@MarkSalter55) posted at 2:15 PM on Sat, Mar 29, 2025:
The international order maintained by four generations of statesmen that prevented WW3, defeated the USSR, fostered unprecedented prosperity and liberty in the world, and made the US the richest, most powerful country in the world is over because you, JD Vance, have a better idea
(https://x.com/MarkSalter55/status/1906062649219015070?t=ip0AhgW4kApHVxexADNEzg&s=03)
Acyn (@Acyn) posted at 2:06 PM on Sat, Mar 29, 2025:
Casar: One of the most important things I learned is how so many of the most right-wing elected officials break things, do not want services to work, and then campaign on them being broken in order to gain political power. https://t.co/21BGMFSxxX
(https://x.com/Acyn/status/1906060451940893017?t=ORx_Q5-YbKb97tj1F5Yk7Q&s=03)
Scopedog
2 hours ago
Saw this in a Substack article–it pretty much jumped out at me:
It’s easy to blame Democrats. They won’t sue you into bankruptcy, nor send men in balaclavas to throw you into a van and deport you to a gulag without due process. Yup, it’s a whole lot safer to criticize Democrats, blame them, dismiss them as too weak although they are the one major part of our government, our national structure, that has consistently stood up for democracy and the rule of law.
The United States versus Elon R. Musk
@Needle_of_Arya
leftists in the UK, France, and now Canada uniting with the centre-left to defeat conservatives & fascists was supposed to be a lesson for America’s white far left, which did the exact opposite
6:12 AM · Mar 31, 2025
https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1906665933302866371
Canada freezes rebate payments to Tesla, bars it from future programs due to tariffs
CEO Elon Musk is a close ally of Trump, who has slapped hefty tariffs on Canada
Thomson Reuters · Posted: Mar 25, 2025 7:47 PM CDT | Last Updated: March 25
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-freezes-rebates-tesla-1.7493434
The United States versus Elon R. Musk
@Needle_of_Arya
the real duopoly is the white far left + the white supremacist right
the former always hates Black people far more than they’ll ever hate MAGA
maybe it’s because most white leftists have conservative parents and that’s where they get their framing on just about everything.
https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1906743892323832198
Congratulations again to Louisiana for defeating all four of those nightmare proposed amendments to the Louisiana Constitution.
Bravo 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Doug Lindner
@douglindner.bsky.social
Follow
Lots of Trump’s illegal things could be legal if Congress did them, and Republicans have control of Congress, but they’d rather help the self-described king/dictator be a king/dictator
https://bsky.app/profile/douglindner.bsky.social/post/3lljkohqg2s24
Steve Vladeck
@stevevladeck.bsky.social
Follow
This is a really important point. Trump is losing most of the cases he’s losing because no statute directly authorizes what he’s doing.
Instead of complaining about judges doing their jobs, congressional Republicans could, you know, *pass legislation* to give Trump the authorities he’s claiming.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevevladeck.bsky.social/post/3lljkxusmyc24
JUST ROTTEN EVIL PEOPLE
Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆
@RachelBitecofer
Trump and Elon are killing off Meals on Wheels.
No, really. 👇
Agency for older adults and people with disabilities to be shuttered under HHS cuts
https://x.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1906419029696520619
ChrisO_wiki
@ChrisO_wiki
Completely on the level, yes sir, nothing to be concerned about here:
“somehow four Tesla- owned dealerships reported to the Canadian government that they sold an astonishing 8,653 cars during a single weekend in January — enough to qualify for 43 million Canadian dollars’ (about $30 million) worth of government subsidies under a program just before it expired.
Now the Canadian government wants to know exactly how the electric carmaker managed to move two cars a minute off its lots — a rate that assumes those four dealers had stayed open 24 hours from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12.”
2:52 AM · Mar 31, 2025
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1906615500701864410
Mother Jones @motherjones.com
Elon Musk has already spent more money—$20 million and counting—than any individual donor in the history of US judicial races to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
But he dramatically escalated his efforts Friday, saying he would “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars” for voting.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/elon-musk-wisconsin-supreme-court-vote-buying-one-million-schimel-crawford/
NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
@NOELreports
⚡️ In response to Trump’s actions, the European Commission plans to close the EU market completely to American goods if needed, according to El País. If this move is carried out, it could escalate the trade war to unpredictable consequences.
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1906659241315729676
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊