The American Bar Association Is Suing Over Trump's Extortion Of Law Firms

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Huff Post

Jun 16, 2025, 03:10 PM EDT


The American Bar Association, the largest national group representing lawyers, sued in federal court to permanently stop President Donald Trump’s extortion of law firms on Monday. Soon after taking office for his second term, Trump issued a series of executive orders targeting seven law firms with punitive sanctions for political reasons. The orders acted as an opening salvo in an attack on Big Law to pressure law firms into “deals” with the administration that would restrain them from challenging Trump’s policies.

After Trump hit the venerable New York firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with an executive order on March 14 banning its lawyers from contact with the federal government and access to federal buildings, and stripping its lawyers of security clearances, which would have effectively ended its ability to work, the firm’s partners agreed to an informal deal to make the order go away. The firm pledged $40 million in pro bono services to the administration and to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices. It also removed nearly all mention of its pro bono work challenging the immigration policies of the first Trump administration from its web site.

In the following weeks, eight law firms entered into preemptive deals with the administration to avoid the threat of a punitive order by pledging a total of $900 million in pro bono services. A chill settled over Big Law as the firms that entered into these deals, and others fearful of being targeted, curtailed or halted their pro bono work on causes that might anger Trump, in particular providing services to immigrants and immigrant rights groups.

Trump’s extortion of law firms via executive order “is unlawful,” the ABA lawsuit states. “Our Constitution does not vest the Executive Branch with the power to point to individual lawyers or law firms, declare by executive fiat that their work or their internal policies are ‘against the national interest’ or otherwise illegal or improper, and direct (or threaten) executive action against that lawyer or law firm.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aba-trump-law-firms_n_68506313e4b0534654df30d2?origin=top-ad-recirc

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Link to LAWSUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674.1.0.pdf

[Cha]

1. TY Kick for Law Firms!

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Awesome, but can we push this through the system during his term is over?

Never mind fast tracking it, send it up on a bullet train.
I'm sure his (our) lawyers will appeal to find a friendly court.
I don't think the Supreme Court can rationalize such extortion of the justice system. Except Thomas of course.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Bar Association has to sue a sitting US president to stop committing crimes against law firms.

[Bev54]

7. Yeah because, it seems, some law firms won't do it for themselves.

Screw those that capitulated to Trump. They should be made to continue their suffering.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Officers of court are not supposed to take part in criminal activities.

But the agreed to be a part of Trump's extortion schemes.

[Bev54]

9. I wonder if anyone will sue these firms for that reason?

[Irish_Dem]

10. Report them to the local bar association?

[PSPS]

16. Yes, furthering a crime, even against yourself (extortion,) is a federal felony

Yet, the lawyers of these "big law firms," many of which have former federal DOJ officials on their boards, still committed what they know are federal felonies.

[Irish_Dem]

17. They cannot claim they did not know it was a crime.

[PSPS]

21. Precisely. It boggles the mind especially that there are former federal prosecutors at the firms who agreed.

[Irish_Dem]

22. Would they advise their clients to go along with extortion, blackmail, etc.

Tell their clients they have no other choice?

[markodochartaigh]

4. There

were fifty lawyers on a bus


I'm not doing lawyer jokes anymore.

[wolfie001]

5. Maybe they should focus some of their battles on John Robert's wife

She's up to her neck in the legal manipulations to push christo-fascism.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/04/28/chief-justice-john-roberts-wife-made-over-10-million-as-legal-consultant-report-says/

*paywall but I was able to peruse quite a bit.

[LilElf70]

6. I love what I read

It's good to see someone is standing up to the prick.

The only issue I see is that he does not believe in the rule of law. He thinks the Supreme Court gave him that right.

[multigraincracker]

11. The ABA has the best Harvard lawyers.

I trust them to handle it with the best lawyers.

[calimary]

15. I'll reserve judgment until I see actual, provable, and significant results.

I’m not gonna trust ANY of these lawyers until the.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread BumRushDaShow

[Scalded Nun]

13. Can't the ABA disbar any of the administration's lawyers who advocate for, or actually engage in

unconstitutional acts/activities?

I have no idea (not a lawyer) but it seems to me that all of these legal assholes in the Trump administration should be disbarred, including the AG.

[Paladin]

14. About damn time for the ABA to get busy on this. (nt)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. American Bar Association sues Trump administration over law firm sanctions

The group said President Donald Trump was trying to intimidate lawyers and law firms to prevent them from challenging him in court.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/16/american-bar-association-sues-trump

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.

President Donald Trump rattled the legal profession this year by issuing 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 have struck down three of the orders, 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 tries to stay out of politics. This will be a fun lawsuit to watch

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Susman Godfrey is counsel for the ABA in this lawsuit

This will be fun to watch

Link to tweet

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtlQznOWAAAFv1jjpg

Here is a link to the lawsuit-I love the fact that Susman Godfrey is the counsel for this lawsuit
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674/gov.uscourts.dcd.281674.1.0.pdf

[BumRushDaShow]

20. When I first posted this

I read through the Introduction section in the complaint and it was a fascinating history lesson about the organization!