Jenner, Wilmer Seek to Kill Trump Orders Targeting Firms (1)

Jenner & Block and WilmerHale on Tuesday asked federal judges to permanently block President Donald Trump’s executive orders against the law firms.

Trump’s order is a “plain violation” of the First Amendment, Jenner said in a motion filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. It asked a judge to make permanent a March 28 decision halting much of the order—and also to broaden that by barring the entire order.

WilmerHale’s filing in the same court called the order an “indivisible affront to cherished constitutional values,” and asked for it to be declared unconstitutional in its entirety.

Lawyers from the Justice Department filed a motion seeking to dismiss WilmerHale’s complaint, saying the firm could not point to real harm from the order and arguing that its First Amendment claims don’t hold up.

“At the end of the day, Plaintiff simply does not like what the current Administration thinks about” it, the DOJ said. “That is not the stuff plausible claims are made of.”

Trump directed federal agencies to restrict Jenner and WilmerHale employees from accessing US buildings, strip lawyers’ security clearances, and terminate government contracts with the firms’ clients. Judges previously issued temporary bans on large portions of the orders, and are now being asked to extend them permanently.

“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,” Jenner said in the new court filing.

WilmerHale’s filing said the orders went beyond the scope of a president’s authority.

“He may not blacklist WilmerHale or indiscriminately suspend its employees’ clearances in retaliation for constitutionally protected advocacy,” the filing said. “Nor may he impose these draconian sanctions without notice and an opportunity to be heard.”

Jenner didn’t previously challenge the order’s revoking of its lawyers’ security clearances. It asked the court on Tuesday to also strike down that part of the order.

WilmerHale asked Judge Richard Leon to bar the order’s security clearances provision, but he declined to do so. The new filing again seeks to bar the executive order in its entirety.

In his March 25 executive order against Jenner, Trump focused on former partner Andrew Weissmann. The ex-Justice Department official was a top member of Robert Mueller’s special counsel team who had a lead role in securing the convictions of Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.

The president on March 27 targeted WilmerHale over its past employment of Robert Mueller, saying the former special counsel’s Russia investigation “epitomizes the weaponization of government.”

WilmerHale is represented by Paul Clement and a team of lawyers from Clement & Murphy.

Jenner is represented by lawyers from Cooley LLP including Michael Attanasio.

The cases are Jenner & Block v. U.S. Department of Justice, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00916, motion filed 4/8/25, and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr v. Executive Office of the President, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00917, 4/8/25.