Attorney General Ford Joins Open Letter to Legal Community Regarding Law Firm Responses to Trump’s Unconstitutional Threats Against Lawyers

Carson City, NV — Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford joined an open letter to the legal community that expresses support for law firms that have fought back against President Trump’s unconstitutional attempts to target law firms for advocacy the Trump administration disfavors and that expresses the coalition’s profound disappointment in the response from several of the country’s largest law firms in the face of these dangerous attacks on the rule of law.

The open letter to the legal community comes as President Trump has issued unconstitutional executive orders targeting several law firms for their advocacy, and as some of the nation’s largest law firms have struck “deals” with the President and his administration that commit the firms to provide free legal services to support the Trump administration’s priorities.

"At the core of our nation’s legal system are the ideas of independence; the right to due process; and freedoms to express different beliefs and viewpoints,” said AG Ford. “The Trump administration’s attack on law firms it deems the enemy is fundamentally un-American and shows a complete disregard for the principles that are needed to ensure our legal system works as the founders intended. Our legal system is sacred because of the protections it offers everyday Americans, and I urge every law firm to take a stand against efforts to destroy this system.”

In the letter published today, the coalition of attorneys general explains that President Trump’s executive orders plainly violate the Constitution. The executive orders retaliate against lawyers based on protected speech and association, and they discriminate based on viewpoint. The orders also are inconsistent with the right to effective counsel; offend basic principles of due process; and undermine bedrock rule-of-law principles. The letter points out that these unconstitutional attacks on the legal profession are an attack on our justice system and pave the way towards authoritarianism.

In the letter, the coalition highlights that four law firms — Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — have filed suit against the Trump administration for the President’s illegal actions and have succeeded in obtaining court orders temporarily blocking these orders.

The letter calls upon other law firms and lawyers to join the four law firms who have fought back against these unconstitutional executive orders, along with their counsel, current and former General Counsel of leading companies, former judges, law professors, and the more than 800 other law firms that have joined amicus briefs in those cases. The letter urges other law firms and lawyers to reject the path taken by the firms that have acquiesced to President Trump, and it invites law firms to stand together with the coalition of attorneys general in preserving the integrity of our legal system.

In signing onto the letter, AG Ford joins the co-lead attorneys general of New Jersey, Colorado, Delaware and Illinois, as well as the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

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