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- Published March 28, 2025Updated March 29, 2025, 10:51 a.m. ET
Federal judges dealt twin blows to President Trump’s retaliation campaign on Friday by issuing temporary restraining orders blocking much of his executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in investigations of him, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale.
The rulings barred the administration from carrying out punishments described in the executive orders, like banning their lawyers from government buildings, meetings, or jobs.
Mr. Trump went after Jenner & Block because the firm once employed a lawyer who became part of the special counsel team that investigated Mr. Trump in his first term. But Judge John Bates of Federal District Court in the District of Columbia took issue with Mr. Trump’s order because it also punished the firm for its pro bono work, a common feature of many large law firms to provide legal representation to unpopular or poor clients.
Judge Bates said he found that action “disturbing” and “troubling.”
Shortly after Judge Bates’s ruling, another judge in the same courthouse, Richard Leon, issued a similar temporary restraining order against a Trump executive order targeting a different firm, WilmerHale, where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation.
The judges let stand the parts of the president’s orders stripping security clearances from lawyers at the firms.
Jenner & Block and WilmerHale had filed lawsuits in federal court in Washington earlier Friday. Now they and a third firm, Perkins Coie, have won initial victories in court.
