Trump’s Executive Order Against Susman Godfrey L.L.P. Based on Firm’s Clients Continues to Challenge Fundamental Constitutional Rights

New York, New York – The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) senior officers and the Rule of Law Task Force of the New York County Lawyers Association condemn the April 9, 2025 Executive Order (the “Order”) sanctioning the Susman Godfrey law firm.  The Order would, among other things, ban all the firm’s attorneys from entering federal courthouses, appearing before federal agencies, and engaging with federal employees.  It imposes this punishment based on assertions that the firm used unspecified means to “degrade the quality of American elections,” funded unnamed “groups that engage in dangerous efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the United States military through the injection of political and radical ideology,” and supported unidentified “efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”  By failing to substantiate any of these allegations, the Order violates the basic requirements of due process.  But because it is clear that the Order’s true aim is to punish the firm for representing particular clients (all of whom are entitled to counsel), its violations go much further and deeper. 

Other Executive Actions Challenging Our Fundamental Constitutional Rights

This is the sixth executive action by the President to sanction a law firm based apparently on the firm’s clients.  The first such action was against Covington & Burling, followed in quick succession by nearly identical actions against Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block, and Wilmer Hale.

All these actions rest solely on the President’s own unsupported allegations and they typically lack any specificity. None of the law firms had any notice that its conduct would subject it to sanctions.  Before the sanctions were announced, none of the firms was given the opportunity to challenge the allegations or sanctions, or to resolve allegations of employment discrimination in accordance with the applicable EEOC procedures.

No court has ruled that any of the firms violated any law that calls for any of the purported sanctions. To the contrary, every court that has ruled on these actions has seriously questioned their constitutionality and has issued a TRO against their enforcement. Yet the President continues to take these actions, in essentially the same form, imposing the same sanctions based on similarly dubious allegations.

This Order, like the others, is now the subject of a TRO against its enforcement.  In granting that TRO, the court observed that the President’s action against Susman Godfrey appeared to stem from a personal vendetta. We agree: In our view, the fact that the Administration repeated the same clear constitutional defects that courts had already noted in reviewing its prior actions shows that these actions have no genuine law enforcement or regulatory purpose. Instead, they are meant solely to bully lawyers out of bringing actions for causes and clients the President does not like.  And it may be working: The law firms that have settled with the Administration already appear to have backed away from representing unpopular causes and clients.

The Threat to Our Constitutional Freedoms and the Rule of Law

These executive actions seriously threaten our liberties, constitutional freedoms, and the rule of law.  They undermine the rights of law firms and their clients to free speech, to free association, to petition the government, to enjoy equal protection under the law, to provide and receive effective assistance of counsel, and to obtain due process before being deprived of any of their precious liberties.  This threat to our liberties, constitutional freedoms and the rule of law was heightened by the President’s direction to the Attorney General to seek sanctions against lawyers who litigate against government agencies in a manner that the administration deems to be “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious.”  And if the government may bar disfavored lawyers from talking to government employees or block them from entering federal buildings (as the Order would do to employees of Susman Godfrey), those individuals may not even conduct the ordinary business with the government that all Americans take for granted, such as buying stamps or mailing a letter at the post office.

Our Constitution and the rule of law protect the freedoms of all Americans.  To safeguard those freedoms, the courts must be free to make fair decisions.  These require lawyers who are free to advocate zealously for any client without fear of government threats or unlawful punishment.  By seeking to intimidate lawyers for persons the President disapproves, the President’s actions threaten our most basic liberties and Constitutional rights.  Thus, we applaud Susman Godfrey and all the firms that are defending our liberties by vigorously challenging these unconstitutional Presidential actions.

About the New York County Lawyers Association
The New York County Lawyers Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as one of the first major bar associations in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

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