Even if you adore [Trump/Biden], for whatever reason, you are a big problem if you refuse to criticize clear violations of the constitution no matter who is in the White House.
Trump suffers another defeat in court, as expected and deserved.
Shocking Abuse of Power
On April 16, NBC News reported Federal judge calls Trump’s order targeting prominent law firm a ‘shocking abuse of power’
In a blistering ruling, a federal judge blocked a new executive order from President Donald Trump punishing a prominent law firm that successfully sued Fox News for promoting false claims of election fraud.
U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan, speaking from the bench in her Washington, D.C., courtroom Tuesday, said Trump’s order targeting the law firm Susman Godfrey was part of a “personal vendetta.”
“The framers of our Constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power,” AliKhan said.
The legal battle over Susman Godfrey is part of an intensifying effort by Trump to target his critics and other perceived enemies with presidential memorandums and executive orders that leverage the power of the Justice Department and other federal agencies to punish his opponents, legal experts and former Justice Department officials said.
Among the broad array of those targeted by Trump in recent weeks: multiple large law firms that challenged him or his administration in court, former aides who defied him during and after his first term, and people who vandalize Tesla dealerships. Trump also directed the Justice Department to drop all pending investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump and his allies contend that then-President Joe Biden weaponized the Justice Department against him. They have repeatedly accused the Biden White House of pressing Justice Department prosecutors to be tough on Trump and of holding them back in the cases of Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Weaponization Irony
Without a doubt Biden illegally weaponized the Justice Department against Trump.
So did New York State in it’s preposterous tax case against Trump.
I defended Trump numerous times over this weaponization.
In response I was accused of being “Extreme Right”. What a hoot.
The weaponization backfired. It is one of the reasons Trump won.
Revenge
Trump’s response is even worse. He is targeting law firms just for defending someone.
The cult foolishly cheers.
Smacked Again
I am pleased to report Trump’s Campaign Against Elite Law Firms Suffers Another Defeat in Court
In a matter of weeks, President Trump’s campaign against the legal industry racked up commitments from law firms to provide some $1 billion in pro bono work for causes favored by the White House. In court, the effort has met a much different fate: One gut punch after another.
The latest blow landed Friday, when a federal judge in Washington struck down Trump’s executive order against the law firm Jenner & Block. The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Bates extended a string of defeats the administration has suffered against law firms that have challenged executive orders targeting their businesses.
In his ruling, Bates said the White House had unconstitutionally retaliated against Jenner & Block based on the causes and clients it supports, along with its past association with Andrew Weissmann, a onetime partner. Weissmann had served on the team of Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Trump during his first term.
Like other executive orders against law firms, Bates wrote, the one targeting Jenner & Block “makes no bones about why it chose its target: it picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed.”
Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said the executive orders violated law firms’ First Amendment rights by retaliating against them for the views embodied in their work and by “seeking to muzzle them going forward.” The orders were “doubly violative of the Constitution,” he wrote, by also seeking to sideline law firms and keep them from taking on the administration.
The ruling by Bates ruling echoed a decision earlier this month from U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who ordered a permanent block on an executive order against the law firm Perkins Coie. Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, declared the order unconstitutional and an “unprecedented attack” on foundational principles ensuring lawyers’ independence, dealing a first decisive blow against Trump’s campaign to punish law firms over their affiliations with his perceived political foes.
The Jenner & Block vs DOJ Ruling
Please consider JENNER & BLOCK LLP, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 25-916 (JDB)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, et al., Defendants.
This case arises from one of a series of executive orders targeting law firms that, in one way or another, did not bow to the current presidential administration’s political orthodoxy. Like the others in the series, this order—which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block— makes no bones about why it chose its target: it picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed. Going after law firms in this way is doubly violative of the Constitution. Most obviously, retaliating against firms for the views embodied in their legal work—and thereby seeking to muzzle them going forward—violates the First Amendment’s central command that government may not “use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.”
More subtle but perhaps more pernicious is the message the order sends to the lawyers whose unalloyed advocacy protects against governmental viewpoint becoming government-imposed orthodoxy. This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers. It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full.
Executive orders like this one have become something of a modus operandi for the President. Both before and after this order, the administration trained similar orders on other large law firms, including Covington & Burling; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (“Paul Weiss”); Perkins Coie; WilmerHale; and Susman Godfrey. The orders follow the same recipe: other than personalized touches in their first sections, they generally direct the same adverse actions towards each firm and decry the threat each firm poses to national security and the national interest.
Analysis I.
The executive order violates Jenner’s First Amendment rights. The challenged executive order targets Jenner for what it has said and thereby attempts to dampen what it might yet say.
That is unconstitutional under any view of the First Amendment, but two additional features of this order magnify its offensiveness to the freedoms the First Amendment guarantees: its viewpoint discrimination and its targeting of lawyers in particular.
And none of the order’s sections can be salvaged by the Executive Branch’s discretion in guarding the nation’s secrets.
Put simply, this blunderbuss of an order does not engage in the sort of “legitimate consideration of speech,” Reichle v. Howards, 566 U.S. 658, 668 (2012), that might sometimes be necessary to keep classified information in safe hands. Rather than ensuring that national secrets remain with those who will keep them, Section 2’s process “seek[s] to leverage” the Executive’s control over security clearances as a way to change speech.
The President has displayed a great deal of animosity towards Jenner. Further adverse actions would not be shocking—and could very well offend the Constitution as plainly as Executive Order 14246 does. And the defendants’ own conduct during this litigation does not ease the concern: even in complying with the TRO, the defendants persisted in disparaging Jenner, implied that federal agencies may “decide with whom to work” notwithstanding the First Amendment, and “reserve[d] the right to take all necessary and legal actions” against Jenner.
Conclusion
Jenner raises many more claims of unconstitutionality. These present interesting, difficult, and potentially meritorious questions about the scope of presidential power and more. What has been said here of the First Amendment (and in passing of the Fifth and Sixth), however, is sufficient to declare Executive Order 14246 unlawful and enjoin its operation, eliminating the need to explore those other questions. So the Court need not break new ground:
Executive Order 14246 violates settled First Amendment law and its operation must be enjoined in full. Jenner’s motion for summary judgment is granted; the defendants’ motion is denied. A separate order will issue.
JOHN D. BATES
United States District Judge
Typical Clown Response
The typical clown response from the cult is to attack the judge.
In this case, Judge Bates was appointed by President George W, Bush in 2001.
Will that stop anyone? Probably not. The cult will scream about “activist judges” when the problem is an activist Trump.
Settled out of Court
Unfortunately, the Paul Weiss law firm foolishly settled out of court without a fight.
Yesterday, we learned 4 partners leave Paul Weiss after firm cut deal with Trump
Four partners at Paul Weiss — including the high-profile Democratic attorney Karen Dunn — are departing the law firm, a spokesperson told CBS News, after Paul Weiss drew attention for striking a deal with President Trump to avoid targeting by the federal government.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump targeted Paul Weiss with an executive order that sharply limited how the firm could interact with the government, seeking to revoke staff members’ security clearances and cut off any federal contracts. The move was part of a wider gambit to punish the president’s foes in the legal community, which he claims have “played an outsized role in undermining the judicial process and in the destruction of bedrock American principles.”
The president’s executive order criticized Paul Weiss for employing Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked on the team of Manhattan prosecutors that investigated Mr. Trump. It also took aim at the firm — and Rhee — for taking on a pro bono case involving the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and criticized Paul Weiss’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
But that order was later rescinded by Mr. Trump, who said Paul Weiss had agreed to a litany of compromises, like auditing its hiring practices and dedicating $40 million to pro bono legal services on causes that both the firm and the Trump administration agree upon.
Got That?
Trump took aim at Paul Weiss just for representing someone.
Illegal and unconstitutional extortion is what we have here. Trump collected a cool $40 million for it.
Justice is on sale and the price is $40 million.
Unthinking Cultists Cheer
The morons in the Trump cult cheered. There is no better word than moron.
If Trump can do this so can the next Democrat president.
Yes, Biden weaponized the justice department against Trump. But that is no excuse to weaponize the justice department against entire classes of people and organizations.
When I speak of “the cult” please keep in mind there are two of them, a “Left cult” and a “Right cult”.
I spoke against Democrats’ attempt to pack the courts and I speak against Trump’s even more belligerent attempts to do the same.
More Idiocy
Those looking for more legal idiocy should consider Trump Threatens to Suspend Habeas Corpus on Grounds the US is Being Invaded
Trump orders the courts to do the “right thing”.
The US is not being invaded. And the courts have already ruled against Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Trump’s threat is a blanket interpretation that everyone here illegally is an enemy invader.
No one should be cheering this.
How about Movies Are Now a National Security Threat, 100 Percent Tariffs Announced
Hooray for Hollywood!
And if you think I always side against Trump. You are mistaken.
For example, please consider Judge Dugan Illegally Shields a Migrant, Send Her to Jail
If the facts hold as presented, Judge Dugan isn’t fit to be a judge.
On May 5, I commented 35 House Democrats Join Republicans to Kill Biden’s Preposterous EV Targets
The end of California’s grip on US EV policy is nearly over!
On May 22, 2025 I commented Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire NLRB and Merit Board Members
This is a welcome win, but it fails to address the real problem.
The NLRB swings from wild Left to Right depending on who get to make appointments, and those appointments are guaranteed political.
The EPI cites 6 rulings Trump made, that Biden reversed, and now Trump will reverse again.
The same happened in Biden’s EPA.
Ultimately, I believe a Supreme Court’s EPA strike down will be permanent, but the NRLB ruling seems temporary and very unsatisfactory.
If Trump can fire the NRLB without cause, then the next Democrat president can do the same.
The ping-pong problem is obvious. But the real problem is all of these allegedly “independent” agencies are in reality nothing more than political rubber stamps.
Unlike the “Left cult” or the “Right cult” I judge each case on its merits.
And like it or not the primary case we are discussing today is downright chilling.
Trump is using executive orders to silence opponents in clear violation of the constitution.
Everyone should be shocked and appalled by this. But the cult cheers, and most of them still will even after reading this analysis.
To repeat: Even if you adore [Trump/Biden], for whatever reason, you are a big problem if you refuse to criticize clear violations of the constitution no matter who is in the White House.
If what im reading is true. They are sneaking this into his big beautiful bill thats gonna throw the courts and opposition out of the picture.
He and the far right will be unstoppable.
“If Trump can do this so can the next Democrat president.”
It was already being done by Democrats. Lawfare. In the ginned up case of numerous felonies against Trump, his constitutional rights were violated, by both the prosecutor and the court. Leticia James, New York AG apparently has her own mortgage fraud allegation now, against her. She said she ran specifically to get Trump. AG corruption.
The photos of the “top secret” documents laying on the floor at Maralago, it was obvious they staged, even before the truth came out. FBI/DOJ corruption.
ZH: “Declassified: Biden Admin Labeled COVID Dissenters ‘Domestic Violent Extremists’”Fundamentalist Catholics were deemed extremists in an FBI memo and parents complaining at school board meetings were treated as extremists, under Biden’s FBI/DOJ.
It isn’t Trump who caused all this and even more corruption. Under the Constitution, i don’t see those people being brought to justice.
Dear Grok, did biden weaponize the justice department against trump?
ConclusionThere is no definitive evidence that Biden directly weaponized the DOJ against Trump. The prosecutions align with legal processes and evidence, and the DOJ’s actions against Democrats further complicate the narrative of partisan targeting. However, Biden’s occasional norm-breaking comments and the polarized political environment have amplified suspicions among Trump’s supporters. For a deeper understanding, one could examine primary DOJ documents or court filings, but based on available information, the claim lacks substantiation.
It’s called a political blitzkrieg. Trump knows he won’t win them all. His strategy is to keep the opposition off balance with his frequent and unpredictable decrees. It appears to be working as many are continually distracted by his every move.
People can’t stop talking about Trump which is exactly what he wants. Powerful!
And you don’t get big things accomplished by being timid.
Heads on pikes. Metaphorically speaking. Lawfare ran through deep layers in that public / private partnership which is the space where covert ops flourish. Rip it out by the roots. You can’t just play the better man. Removing security clearances from law firms who moved against the constitution in effect is not illegal. Who controls the granting of security clearances? The courts? Yeah, no.
I consider Trump’s Taste in women. A very desirable and Lovely First lady with Whores on the side. It is weird.
There is SO much work to do and all we are seeing now is “tit for tat.” This is moronic but SO obviously what these Politicians are up to. It is getting tiresome.
Of course, we know why, but Trump COULD say: “I COULD pull the same tricks that BidenCO did, but choose to be on the side of the Constitution.”
BUT, noooOOOOOOoooo!
The problem as I see it is that FEDGOV has escaped the chains of the Constitution.
Most federal spending is unconstitutional; most federal laws are unconstitutional. Executive orders are unconstitutional.
If the federal government was operating within the bounds of the Constitution, the levers of power that were used by Trump’s political enemies would not have existed, and Trump would not have had executive orders to go after his enemies.
The levers of power enable the worst to get on top (paraphrasing Hayek here), and enable the worst to enrich themselves from the public purse. Case in point: what kind of law firm is willing to provide $40M of free legal services to keeps.its ACCESS to the levers of power? Obviously one that sees the access as providing more than $40M over some timeframe.
As Saint George (Carlin) said, “it’s a big club, and you’re not in it.”
Happy Memorial Day, everyone.
Why can’t we ever seem to elect Normal, intelligent, well balanced people into positions of power? I think part of the problem is the individuals that would be great leaders, great politicians have no desire to hold those positions. Unfortunately positions of power attract many of the wrong people, people who seek those positions for many of the wrong reasons. They like the status, they want the power, they like the constant attention and feeling of importance or they have inflated egos believing that they have all of the answers and can do a better job than anyone else.
Some people call Trump a narcissist, I don’t believe he’s a narcissist, but what he is without any doubt is an unbelievable ego maniac, there’s no humility. Stroke his ego and you are his best friend, he will publicly praise you, criticize him and you will become his enemy, he will lash out and publicly attack you. Does Trump seek advice from those around him, my guess is no. In fact most likely the people he fires are those that question what he does and push back.
Trump has done allot of good, closing what were absolutely wide open borders, borders that were most likely purposely left open under the Biden administration, aka Bidens handlers. Putting an end to the DEI nonsense that flooded society. Making your hiring decisions, awarding promotions placing people in positions of power purely based on the color of someones skin, their gender, their race, sexuality etc is absurd and ludicrous. You should be hiring and placing into positions of power the best, the brightest and most competent and skin color, gender, race etc should be the least important reason. When Trudeau was elected he immediately declared his cabinet would be 50% women. He had little interest in placing the best and the brightest and most competent in cabinet positions, his priority was filling his DEI quota. And statistics show that Trudeau’s 10 year reign was possibly the worst decade in Canadian economic history. Trudeau was a narcissist and a Fool.
Trump followed up his good with equally bad, his Tariff strategy is imbecilic. Instead of targeting nations and only going after the specific areas where US goods are unfairly blocked, he decides to use the Bully approach and hammer nations with across the board Tariffs on everything. It’s not Trade among friendly nations It’s flat out extortion. Do what I say or I will destroy your Countries economy. This is really damaging Trade relations between the US and the entire World pushing Countries away from Trade with the US to seek Trading agreements with other Countries. Will Trumps Tariff policy result in a manufacturing renaissance or permanently damage US trade relations with the rest of the World?
The Maga group that always criticized Democrats for not calling out their politicians need to wake up and realize that not every criticism of Trump is due to TDS, it’s because Trump does allot of Stupid things also and needs to be called out by the Republicans when he does these things.
border has been wide open for 400 years. this little episode of scaring border crossers won’t last long. demand and supply. simple.
If you don’t have an outsized ego you don’t go into politics. They all have one only some hide it better than others. There is not one politician past or present that does not have a huge ego *. The Constitution was set up as it was to use politicians’ egos to check other politicians’ egos. Checks and balances. Ambition against ambition.
CFPB Quietly Kills Rule to Shield Americans From Data Brokers
https://www.wired.com/story/cfpb-quietly-kills-rule-to-shield-americans-from-data-brokers/
“Trump Threatens”. “Trump Attacks”
Those law firms need receptionists like Dick Butkus. Problem solved.
You got to the crux of it: this is a dangerous drift, whoever started it. It is institutional decay, loss of rule of law, if continued, ascendancy of a new predatory age. And it has surged in this presidential term upward like a hockey stick. This is the most worrying underlying trend of our times, because the federal government has become such a central node of our economy and civilization (more slippage, sadly). So whoever is in charge, the fish rotting from the head is perilous. Whatever China does, if we are self-paralyzed, we can’t cope.
usa long ago became an empire. it’s now crumbling under the weight of the evil pursuit of trying to rule the world. trump is amerika. go read republic of plato. this was inevitable. assholes elect assholes. biden and trump are assholes. elected by assholes.
Is that what Plato said?
yup. go read it yourself. a great dialogue of brilliant men. assholes elect assholes. old as dirt.
I forgot that you’re New Soviet Man. I’ve read some Plato. You probably have not. Or if you have, what exactly did Plato say? Funny though, since we are a republic, not a democracy.
Plato said that we should be ruled by people like Harvard professors. Many Harvard professors feel the same as Plato and feel they should be ruling over us. Some peons agree with what the Harvard professors tell them what they should feel.
Just look at my comment above. I think I responded sufficiently.
The achievements of platonic European Elites: Fascism, Nazism and Communism. Especially the French Universities who trained Pol Pot.
You know most high-ranking Nazis were PhDs, eugenics was a mark of the “educated liberal renaissance man”, and both the idea and name “European Economic Community” (Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft) was invented and coined first by another elite, Herman Goering, in the Berlin Conference in 1942.
The rolling head of Marie Antoinette would tell you that Plato’s Republic is not such a good idea, especially given that the USA far surpassed in success any former European empire which was run by elites only. As a matter of fact, the natural fate of those “Plato Republics” in the 1940s was to become parts of the USSR after Hitler’s defeat (if the “hillbilly” Americans hadn’t interfered from the West side to pick up the loot of Hitler’s already crumbling State).
Now take a look at how many people are getting arrested in the UK and Germany for posting silly tweets to which not even KGB would have reacted, take a look at the elite projects in the USA (Obamacare comes to mind) and tell me about those “elites”, because I remember them from high school and they were all mediocrities.
PS. My first degree is in Philosophy from the University of Athens, so, bring it on!
My observation: your constitution is dead for quite a while, as the people standing up for it are ignored, and those in positions of power simply ignore the whole piece of paper.
If I understand correctly one side can use lawfare as much as it wants but the other side should not to in order to claim the “moral” high ground?
I’m recalling a painting by Francisco Goya: two giants pelting each other while standing in a common pool of quicksand, both sinking.
Reminds me of this one:
El Maragato – Francisco de Goya — Wikipédia
That’s right, Doug! Conservatives are all being led by a cult leader whose goal is to tear down America by breaking every rule in the book & must be stopped at all costs. The fate of world whose ruling class must succeed in making all borders open, creating the long awaited, one world government. Europe’s lurch to the right is just a fade & will soon die out no matter how many car & knife attacks there are.
P.S. that felt weird writing all of that, since I don’t actually believe it.
Democrats have no moral high ground.
These firms were also instrumental in disbarring or threatening trump supporting law firms and lawyers most famously Alan dershowitz. Yet you claim that they should be defended and be immune from suffering te consequences of their actions !? No. Until they have to take the same medicine and attacs that they participated in they will not stop. Without consequences bad behavior does not stop. I am pretty sure that if this makes it to scotus it will predictably be 5 to 4 against allowing the doj to bring down the hammer on these leftist lawfirms that so deserve an asswhopping. Roberts and commie barret will side with the unwise Latina, kagan and idk what is a woman jackson.
Clearly you are nuts
Yeah, Alex, you’re nuts for having an opposing opinion. Roberts & Coney Barret are socialists, not communist. Don’t you know the difference? ; )
Darvo. Deny attack reverse victim and offender.
Trump will claim its rigged against him and his people will believe him.
Of course anytime a politician is being investigated by the justice dept when the opposite party is in power. They claim its being weaponized against them. . Maybe just maybe they have done enough to justify being investigated.
‘Hidden’ Provision in Trump’s Big Bill Could Disarm US Supreme Court
https://www.newsweek.com/hidden-provision-trump-bill-court-2075769
There is more to the story here, though.
A lot of the players in these firms coordinated with Biden’s DOJ and various Democrat campaigns to attack Trump in many clever ways, some blatantly illegal, and others in a gray area.
Perkins Coie for instance, was the creator and instigator behind the Russia hoax, and laundered money for Hillary to eventually create the Steele dossier. This arguably ruined Trump’s ability to carry out his agenda in his first term. Marc Elias is a viciously anti-Republican lawyer, and he plays very dirty. They got away with it.
Other firms were active participants in supporting the DOJ’s lawfare, as well as viciously going after lawyer’s who Trump needed to represent him. The firms largely colluded so that Trump would not be properly represented in many of the Democrat lawfare cases that were brought. This was dirty politics, and my view is that if you take a swing at the king, you better not miss.
Well, they missed, and now they’re getting their comeuppance. Sure, Trump’s actions are unconstitutional, but politics ain’t beanbags. In addition, I’m not comfortable with this country allowing law firms to weaponize themselves against a politician simply because he’s on the other team. That is against the code of judicial ethics and he’s very clearly serving them some overdue revenge for it.
This has nothing to do with the Constitution, but politics as bloodsport. These law firms are vicious players, and I have absolutely no care in the world for them. I’ve dealt with some of them, and their lawyers care only about money and how to win more of it.
And, I might add that my experience with Jenner & Block is that they are a bunch of scumbags. They pretend to be these ethical people, but the truth is what they’ll do just depends on how much money their client is willing to pay.
Whatever Trump can to do them is alright in my book. I couldn’t care less about “judicial ethics” because they certainly didn’t when it came to dealing with me.
If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying!
AMIRIGHT?
Lol…
Meet the NEW BOSS!
same as the old…
Dealing with top-tier New York law firms and their lawyers is truly an experience. You look into their eyes and you feel like you are talking to a mafia boss asking you who you want killed. They have a ruthlessness unhindered by any morality. It’s no wonder that the bloodiest revolutions were led by lawyers like Robespierre and Lenin.
That’s deep & dark but probably true.
“This has nothing to do with the Constitution, but politics as bloodsport.“
Back in ancient and medieval times these things were quite common, but now we get front row seats.
In Greece you get front row seats to ordinary corruption methods, in the USA you get lots of resources and cheaper gasoline to go there and see for yourself.
Travel, connect, and be patient. Pretend to be stupid and listen. When I lived for some time in Oklahoma, my then fiancée (a liberal Cherokee) showed me her grandfather’s KKK card and told me that lots of Cherokees were members (“it was a thing to do back then“). I also remember a conversation of two lawyers -family friends- in a diner talking about a NY “liberal” law firm engaged in hiring assassins and “everyone knew it”.
Back then I had no idea what all these things were (I didn’t know anything about US politics), and I only thought they were talking shop. I didn’t even understand how a law firm could have a political identity.
But why are they fighting for? People always brag “that was my father, a great scientist or artist or brave soldier or a very hard worker or a very ethical man” – nobody ever brags “my dad was a politically biased lawyer“.
Americans are missing one key ingredient they were never taught about, because Harvard and Yale don’t have a class for that: a desire for honorable legacy.
worked at 2 high powered wall street law firms as a young fella. they are pure 100% assholes. great reflections of amerika. democracy works. assholes elect assholes. amerikans cannot handle the truth that the book, republic of plato penned and explained long ago.
The Constitution, laws and judges are proving to be real obstacles to Making America Great Again.
(Like my new avatar?)
That’s his,”I need an enema, BADLY” look