A recent White House memorandum directing federal law enforcement officials to pursue sanctions against attorneys and law firms that challenge President Trump‘s policies in court is drawing sharp criticism and raising concerns about potential intimidation and threats to the justice system.
The directive, issued late Friday night, instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to pursue ethics challenges against lawyers accused of bringing meritless cases or making factually unsupported arguments, including in immigration courts.
The memo specifically instructs Bondi to consider actions against law firm partners for perceived misconduct by junior attorneys and to review cases against the government from the past eight years for potential “misconduct that may warrant additional action”.
This action follows over 130 lawsuits against the Trump administration over efforts to dismantle agencies and diversity programs, freeze spending, fire federal workers, and deport immigrants without due process. Federal judges have issued approximately three dozen injunctions against the administration, ruling in its favor in slightly more than a dozen cases.
Critics like Vanita Gupta, a former Justice Department official, decry the memo as a blatant threat to the justice system. “This presidential memorandum attacks the very foundations of our legal system by threatening and intimidating litigants who aim to hold our government accountable to the law and the Constitution,” Gupta stated.
The directive follows a series of actions that include attacks on judges and lawyers who oppose Trump, the suspension of security clearances for Biden administration officials and prosecutors, and actions targeting law firms like Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, and Paul Weiss. The memo calls for pursuing “attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States”.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin condemned the memo as “an unprecedented and frankly outrageous attempt to threaten lawyers simply for doing their jobs”. “No baseless threat will stop me from doing my job, which is to protect my state from harm,” Platkin asserted.
The White House defends the directive, with Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers stating, “President Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people… President Trump’s only retribution is success and historic achievements for the American people”.
While federal judges already possess the power to sanction attorneys and law firms for meritless lawsuits, the memo’s wording suggests a potential for the Justice Department or Department of Homeland Security to deem routine legal representation as problematic. This raises concerns that lawyers could be targeted for simply accepting cases and fulfilling their ethical obligations to their clients.
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