Trump DOJ Fights to Revive Big Law Orders After Reversal (1)

The Justice Department Friday aired its first defense of President Donald Trump’s executive orders against law firms after reversing course on a move to drop the case earlier this week.

Four federal judges overstepped their authority when they struck down Trump’s orders against four prominent law firms last year, Justice lawyer Abhishek Kambli wrote in a brief filed in a federal appeals court in Washington.

“Courts cannot tell the President what to say. Courts cannot tell the President what not to say,” wrote Kambli, a deputy associate attorney general, in defense of Trump’s crackdown on law firms he said were risks to national security and had discriminatory hiring practices.

“They cannot tell the President how to handle national security clearances,” Kambli continued. “And they cannot interfere with Presidential directives instructing agencies to investigate racial discrimination that violates federal civil rights laws.”

Kambli is tasked with persuading the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that four federal judges wrongly struck down Trump’s orders against Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey. The four firms sued the administration last year over the Trump orders that threatened their security clearances, access to federal buildings, and government contracts held by clients.

Kambli told the court March 2 the Justice Department planned to abandon the appeal before reversing course within 24 hours. Justice’s dismissal would have preserved the federal court rulings that declared the executive orders unconstitutional, allowing the four firms to declare victory.

Kambli didn’t return requests for comment.

The lawyer said the DOJ’s appeal of the federal judges’ decisions is “not about the sanctity of the American law firm; it is about lower courts encroaching on the constitutional power of the President to discuss and address invidious racial discrimination, national security risks, and other problems with certain law firms.”

The firms are scheduled to file briefs by March 27. The Justice Department will then have until April 10 to reply.

The appeals court previously ordered the firms and Justice to make their arguments in person and before the same judicial panel as another lawyer targeted by Trump, Mark Zaid. The court hasn’t set a date for oral arguments or assigned a judicial panel to the cases.

Kambli contrasted the adversarial approach of the four that took Trump to court with the nine firms that pledged a combined $940 million in free legal services.

Those firms—Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, Skadden, Paul Weiss, Milbank, Willkie, A&O Shearman, and Cadwalader—said they’d support police and veterans and combat antisemitism as part of their pro bono work, as well as commit to “merit-based” hiring and to avoid “DEI discrimination.” Kirkland, Latham, Simpson and A&O Shearman avoided investigations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in exchange for the promises.

The case is: Jenner and Block v. DOJ, D.C. Cir., 25-05265, 3/6/26