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Judge Howell cites First Amendment as law firms surrender $1 billion under DOJ threats

Tech giants capitulate to Trump threats while resistance fights back·January 20, 2025

When Trump issued executive orders targeting law firms like Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss in early 2025, the legal profession split. Nine major firms, including Skadden and Kirkland & Ellis, agreed to provide nearly $1 billion in pro bono services to administration-approved causes. But Federal Judge Beryl Howell blocked Trump's order against Perkins Coie, calling it an 'unprecedented attack' on First Amendment rights that cast a 'chilling harm of blizzard proportions' across the legal profession. Her 102-page ruling found the orders violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

Key facts

On January 19 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund after Trump threatened to imprison him (CBS: Meta, Amazon and tech CEOs make $1 million investments in Trump's inauguration).

On January 7 2025, Zuckerberg announced Meta was ending its third-party fact-checking program in response to Trump’s complaints of “unfair censorship” (US News: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Brin: The Tech Bros Cozying Up to Trump).

Paul Weiss agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to Trump-designated causes after Trump’s executive order threatened to destroy the firm (AP: Law firm targeted by Trump could have been destroyed, chairman says).

Susman Godfrey secured a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News for defaming Dominion Voting Systems when Trump targeted the firm; Judge Loren AliKhan blocked Trump’s order as “a shocking abuse of power” (WSWS: Seven more major law firms capitulate to Trump’s extortion).

Federal Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, warning that the orders sent “the clear message: lawyers must stick to the party line, or else” (Common Dreams: Big Law Deals With Trump Are Backfiring on Top Firms).

Target’s stock plunged 17 percent after it rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under Trump pressure, erasing billions in market value (AlterNet: Corporations learn the hard way that capitulating to Trump is bad for business).

At Costco’s January 2025 annual meeting, shareholders voted 98 percent against a proposal to review DEI programs, rejecting anti-DEI pressure (CNBC: Target rolls back DEI initiatives, the latest big company to retreat).

Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong led protests outside Target’s Minneapolis headquarters to condemn the company’s DEI rollback as “cowardly” and directly tied to Trump’s threats (Green America: Walmart and Target Walk Back DEI Commitment).

Abbe Lowell left Winston & Strawn to found Lowell & Associates specifically to represent individuals targeted by the Trump administration, including Mark Zaid and New York Attorney General Letitia James (Wikipedia: Targeting of law firms and lawyers under the second Trump administration).

Reuters reported that tens of thousands of federal workers resigned rather than wait to be fired under Trump’s mass-layoff threats, stripping agencies of experienced staff (Reuters: Trump's mass layoff threat drives US government workers to resign).

Trump administration officials sent EEOC letters to twenty major law firms demanding information on their DEI practices, signaling a coordinated intimidation campaign (Wikipedia: Targeting of law firms and lawyers under the second Trump administration).

Surrendering law firms collectively committed roughly $1 billion in pro bono services to Trump causes, creating what Trump views as “a legal war chest to be used as he wishes” (WSWS: Seven more major law firms capitulate to Trump’s extortion).

CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a segment condemning Big Law firms that settled with Trump, and zero surrendering firms agreed to appear to defend their decisions (Common Dreams: Big Law Deals With Trump Are Backfiring on Top Firms).

Washington Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan resigned from the editorial board after the paper refused to endorse Kamala Harris, attributing the non-endorsement to owner Jeff Bezos’s business interests (NPR: Washington Post won't endorse in White House race for first time since 1980s).

New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani publicly declared he “won’t accept intimidation” in response to Trump’s threats, representing elected-official resistance (World News: Won't Accept Intimidation: Zohran Mamdani Responds To Donald Trump’s Arrest Threats).

Judge Loren AliKhan described Trump’s executive order against Susman Godfrey as “a shocking abuse of power,” finding that coercion had replaced rule-of-law principles (WSWS: Seven more major law firms capitulate to Trump’s extortion).