By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) -A judge in Washington is set to hear arguments on Tuesday afternoon in the latest legal clash over President Donald Trump’s punitive executive orders against major law firms.
Law firm Susman Godfrey has asked U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan to temporarily block Trump’s directive while it pursues a lawsuit alleging that the order violates its rights to free speech and due process under the U.S. Constitution.
Susman claimed the order illegally retaliates against the firm over its work on defamation cases for Dominion Voting Systems challenging false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Trump’s orders against Susman and four other firms suspended their lawyers’ access to government buildings and officials and sought to cancel federal contracts if the firms performed any work on them.
The White House has accused the firms of “weaponizing” the legal system, citing their connections to Trump’s legal and political adversaries and their work on cases he opposes related to voting rights and other issues.
The orders also cited the firms’ employment policies focused on diversity that Trump deemed discriminatory.
Nine firms, including Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps and Simpson Thacher, have cut deals with the White House to avoid business-threatening orders against them.
Those firms and others pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal work to causes Trump supports and committed to only hire based on merit as part of the accords.
Judges have already blocked key provisions of Trump’s orders against Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, finding their lawsuits against the administration would likely succeed.
Susman Godfrey, represented by former Obama-era U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, said in its lawsuit that the order against it “immediately, irreparably harms Susman Godfrey and the firm’s partners, employees, and clients. And it gravely threatens the independence of the bar and the rule of law.”
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Chizu Nomiyama)
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