A federal judge on Friday struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order sanctioning the law firm Jenner & Block, the second time a court has quashed one of Trump’s efforts to punish a firm.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates wrote that Trump’s order was unconstitutional, saying the president was trying “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.”
Trump has taken sharp aim at the legal profession in recent months, issuing orders that targeted several prominent firms with restrictions and penalties they described as existential threats.
Other firms scrambled to avoid similar fates. Nine of the country’s largest law firms reached agreements with the Trump administration, pledging nearly $1 billion in combined pro bono legal services….