A DC federal judge on Friday temporarily barred the Trump administration from enforcing sections of an executive order targeting law firm WilmerHale.
The firm showed “a substantial likelihood of success” on its First Amendment objections to order provisions that restrict lawyers’ access to federal buildings and cut government contracts for WilmerHale clients, Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia wrote. Leon blocked the government from enforcing those provisions.
The judge declined to freeze a provision of Trump’s March 27 order scrapping WilmerHale lawyers’ security clearances.
“We appreciate the court’s swift action to preserve our clients’ right to counsel and acknowledgment of the unconstitutional nature of the executive order and its chilling effect on the legal system,” a WilmerHale spokesperson said via email.
The president targeted WilmerHale over its past employment of Robert Mueller, saying the former special counsel’s Russia investigation “epitomizes the weaponization of government.”
WilmerHale sued Friday to challenge Trump’s order. The firm is represented by Paul Clement and a team of lawyers from Clement & Murphy.
The decision came on the heels of a separate court ruling to freeze most of a similar order aimed at Jenner & Block. Jenner did not ask the court in that case to block the part of the order revoking security clearances.
The case is Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr v. Executive Office of the President, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00917, 3/28/25
(Adds firm spokesperson's statement in fifth paragraph)
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