Law Professors’ Amicus Brief Supporting the Perkins Coie Law Firm in Challenge to Executive Order
The brief, just filed yesterday in district court is here; I was pleased to be one of the very many signers. Here’s the Summary of Argument:
The President’s Order is a self-declared act of retribution that targets a law firm for representing clients and causes the President disfavors. In inflicting this retribution, the Order contradicts centuries of precedent safeguarding free speech, the right of association, and the right to petition. These precedents establish that the First Amendment “prohibits government officials from ‘relying on the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion … to achieve the suppression’ of disfavored speech.” Nat’l Rifle Ass’n v. Vullo, 602 U.S. 175, 176 (2024) (quoting Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58, 67 (1963)). Targeting Perkins Coie for representing clients and espousing views the President dislikes is viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple.
The Order violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments as well. The Fifth and Sixth Amendments were designed to check executive power and to ensure a meaningful way to assert rights before a judicial authority. Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 61, 64–65 (1932). Forcing lawyers to bend to the preferences of federal officials robs clients of their right to counsel and introduces
Article from Reason.com
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