Washington — The Justice Department is walking back its move to end its appeals of lower-court decisions that invalidated President Trump’s executive orders targeting four law firms — just hours after it said it would drop its defense of the directives.
The Justice Department informed the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that it is now seeking to withdraw its request to voluntarily dismiss the appeals. Lawyers for the four firms oppose the move, calling it an “unexplained about-face,” according to the filing.
The Justice Department said in its motion that regardless of the firms’ position, it is its “prerogative” to pursue the appeal.
Susman Godfrey said in a statement, “Yesterday evening, the Administration told the Court that it gave up and wouldn’t even try to defend its unconstitutional executive orders. Today, it reversed course.”
“Regardless, Susman Godfrey will defend itself and the rule of law — without equivocation,” the firm said.
Representatives for Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The reversal from the Justice Department comes less than 24 hours after government lawyers said in a filing that they would be moving to voluntarily drop the department’s appeals of the four lower court decisions that struck down Mr. Trump’s executive orders as unconstitutional. The motion to end the case was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official.
The Justice Department’s written arguments were due in the ongoing appeals in the coming days, and the appeals court has not yet signed off on the government’s initial motion to dismiss.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the reversal. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The rulings stemmed from executive orders Mr. Trump issued last year that sought to punish four firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey — because of lawyers they hired and cases they worked on. The measures all attempted to impose the same sanctions on the firms, going after their clients with government contracts, restricting their access to federal buildings and officials, and suspending security clearances held by their employees.
A fifth firm, Paul, Weiss, was also the subject of a directive from Mr. Trump, but it was rescinded after the firm reached a deal with the White House to provide $40 million in pro bono work for causes the administration supports.
Nine other firms reached similar agreements with the president to avoid executive orders and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services for initiatives backed by the Trump administration.
The four firms that sued the Trump administration won their cases at the trial-court level, with four different federal judges ruling overwhelmingly in their favor and finding the executive orders violated the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments.
The directives rolled out in the first months of Mr. Trump’s second term were part of a broader effort by the president to punish his perceived political enemies upon his return to power. Two of the firms, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, hired lawyers who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including Mueller himself.
Susman Godfrey represented Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News stemming from baseless allegations about the integrity of the 2020 election that were broadcast by the network. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787 million to settle the case.
Perkins Coie represented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, in which her opponent was Mr. Trump. It also hired a research firm that retained former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the infamous “Steele Dossier.”