The Justice Department is backing out from a court battle with four major law firms that won rulings blocking President Donald Trump’s executive orders against them.
DOJ plans to drop its appeals of the rulings, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The Wall Street Journal first reported the move.
The administration’s withdrawal would end the litigation over the orders, in which Trump targeted firms for their ties to lawyers he sees as enemies and work on causes he views as adverse to his interests. Four federal judges struck down the orders as unconstitutional in separate rulings last year.
The development would mark a big win for WilmerHale and the three other firms challenging orders against them: Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey. The district court judges who blocked the orders described them as unprecedented efforts to retaliate against the firms.
Trump’s orders revoked lawyers’ security clearances and barred them from entering federal buildings. The president, who said he was fighting back against firms who “weaponize” the justice system, also threatened to cancel government contracts held by the firms’ clients, and ordered investigations of law firm diversity practices.
Nine other Big Law firms pledged a combined $940 million in free legal services to the White House in deals designed to avoid similar orders and resolve federal probes into recruiting programs at some of the firms.
The cases are scheduled for briefing over the next two months, with oral arguments ordered to take place on the same day.
The case is: Jenner & Block v. DOJ, D.C. Cir., 25-5265, 3/2/26
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