American Bar Association sues Trump administration over law firm sanctions

The American Bar Association sued the Trump administration Monday over the president’s sanctions on law firms, saying he was threatening the independence of lawyers and trying to intimidate them from challenging him in court.
“Never before has there been as urgent a need for the ABA to defend its members, their profession, and the rule of law itself,” the group’s lawsuit said.
Trump rattled the legal profession this year by issuing a series of executive orders punishing some law firms and striking deals with others hoping to avoid similar penalties.
Four firms sued to challenge Trump’s orders. Judges struck down three of the orders so far, calling them unconstitutional. A ruling in the fourth lawsuit, filed by the firm Susman Godfrey, is pending, though the judge hearing that case has temporarily blocked most of Trump’s punishments.
Trump’s deals with nine prominent law firms have outraged many attorneys at those businesses and across the country. The firms agreed to provide nearly $1 billion in combined pro bono legal services for causes that include aiding veterans. A wave of attorneys quit firms that made deals, in some cases defecting to competitors who fought Trump’s actions in court.
The ABA lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Trump’s actions against law firms “cast a deep chill over the legal profession.” The group asked a judge to declare his sanctions unconstitutional and block the administration from enforcing them against any ABA member or their firm.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the ABA lawsuit. The agency has not said whether it will appeal the rulings striking down three of Trump’s orders aimed at law firms.
The ABA lawsuit marks the latest front in the increasingly contentious relationship between the group and the Trump administration.
The ABA, a professional association for attorneys, has previously joined or filed three other lawsuits against the Trump administration, challenging cancellations of grants, contracts or other funding. In its lawsuit filed Monday, the ABA said that it struggled to get legal representation in one of those cases, which the group believed was due to “firms’ reasonable fear of unlawful retaliation by the President.”
The Trump administration has also taken sharp aim at the ABA, with top Justice Department officials accusing the group of bias and blocking employees from attending its events.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in an April memo that the ABA was “free to litigate in support of activist causes.” But, he said, Justice Department employees acting in an official capacity were no longer allowed to attend or speak at the group’s events, and the agency would not use taxpayer dollars to pay for anyone to travel to them.
Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to the ABA that the administration would not help the group vet judicial nominees.
The ABA has long evaluated federal judicial nominees appointed by presidents of both parties, conducting interviews and reviewing their legal writing before rating their qualifications. This assessment, the ABA notes, is “strictly advisory,” and senators and the White House are free to ignore it.
Bondi called the ABA an “activist” group and said it “no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications,” accusing the organization of being biased toward picks from Democratic administrations. She said judicial nominees would not respond to the ABA’s questionnaires or give them interviews.
William R. Bay, the ABA’s president, wrote to Bondi last week and said the group was “surprised and disappointed” by her decision.
He said Bondi’s changes would lead to less transparency and appeared to be based on incorrect information, writing that “the data does not support your claim of bias in the ratings process.”
“It is deeply disturbing that the Justice Department has decided to restrict access to judicial nominees without justification or basis,” he wrote.