Trump administration loses bid to delay appeals over law firm executive orders

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - An appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by the U.S. Justice Department to delay a hearing on President Donald Trump's bid to revive executive orders he issued against four major law firms that were struck down by judges last year.

In an order on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to put the law firm cases on hold and combined them with the Trump administration's appeal of a ruling that barred it from stripping prominent Washington lawyer Mark Zaid of a special government security clearance.

The Justice Department had asked the D.C. Circuit to delay resolving the law firm cases until after it ruled in Zaid’s lawsuit, which likely would have postponed a hearing and resolution for months.

The law firms -- Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey -- had argued they were "entitled to a prompt final resolution of the legality of the government’s efforts to punitively target them."

The Trump administration is appealing decisions by four different federal judges who found his executive orders against the law firms violated the U.S. Constitution. The administration separately in January appealed the ruling blocking it from targeting Zaid.

The Justice Department, which had supported combining the law firm cases with Zaid's if they were not delayed, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attorneys for the four law firms also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s executive orders accused the firms of "weaponizing" the legal system against him and his allies and promoting workplace diversity policies he called discriminatory. The directives sought to strip the firms of security clearances and restrict their access to federal officials, buildings and contracting work.

The four law firms denounced Trump’s orders as unlawful assertions of executive power that violated U.S. constitutional protections for free speech and due process. Four judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents agreed, issuing permanent injunctions last year.

Read more:

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