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The Trump administration said Tuesday that it still wanted to defend President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting several law firms, abruptly reversing course from its position a day earlier.
The Justice Department had on Monday moved to abandon its effort to revive sanctions against the law firms, which had hired Trump’s perceived foes or took on cases he disliked. The agency wrote in a court filing that it no longer wanted to appeal judges’ rulings blocking Trump’s orders, essentially admitting defeat. The law firms hailed the decision, with one saying the administration “capitulated.”
But in a startling turnaround, the administration wrote in a brief filing Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it was seeking to withdraw its motion from a day earlier.
The Justice Department did not explain why it was backpedaling, stating only that it was its prerogative to keep appealing and that the court had not granted its request to dismiss the case.
None of the four targeted law firms — WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey — immediately responded to requests for comment about the reversal.
In its filing, the Justice Department said the administration had contacted attorneys for the firms and that they all opposed the move.
The agency wrote that the firms said they “oppose the government’s unexplained request to withdraw yesterday’s voluntary dismissal, to which all parties had agreed. Under no circumstances should the government’s unexplained about-face provide a basis for an extension of its brief.”
The New York Times first reported Tuesday that the government would try to continue defending the executive orders.
The four law firms involved in the case had been the focus of orders issued by Trump last year that said they should face significant sanctions, including losing government contracts and being blocked from government facilities. The firms said these punishments could devastate their businesses.
All four sued to fight the orders, and judges sided with them in every case, deeming the orders retaliatory and unconstitutional.
The administration has repeatedly defended the orders as lawful and criticized judges who ruled against them. The government’s original request to drop the appeals came ahead of a looming deadline in the case, with its opening brief due Friday.
While those firms all fought Trump’s orders, nine other firms struck deals with him to lift or avoid similar penalties, leading to intense upheaval and outrage across the legal industry.
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