3 days ago
15
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The ruling completed a clean sweep for the handful of law firms that took the risk of fighting the Trump administration in court, rather than accepting punitive conditions.
June 27, 2025, 8:28 p.m. ET
A federal judge in Washington ruled on Friday that an executive order President Trump signed imposing penalties against the law firm Susman Godfrey was unconstitutional, permanently barring the government from enforcing its terms.
The decision by Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia effectively ended, at least for now, the president’s campaign to subjugate several of the nation’s top law firms.
It also completed a perfect record among those firms that risked fighting the administration in court, notching four decisive rulings from four separate judges, none of which the Trump administration has, so far, tried to appeal.
Like three of her colleagues in Washington, Judge AliKhan found that the Trump administration had tried to crush a law firm that had represented groups opposing Mr. Trump.
“The order was one in a series attacking firms that had taken positions with which President Trump disagreed,” she wrote. “In the ensuing months, every court to have considered a challenge to one of these orders has found grave constitutional violations and permanently enjoined enforcement of the order in full.”
Two of the judges who ruled against the Trump administration were nominated by George W. Bush, and the other two by Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr.
