Injustice for All: Big law bends the knee and DOGE plays stupid games
So that part where everyone hoped that the institutions would hold, even if the norms of government did not? Yeah, that part isn’t going so well.
It was bad enough watching the mainstream media race to bribe—er, donate—to Donald Trump with vague hopes that would ensure favorable treatment. On Thursday, however, things did indeed get worse!
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, an enormous white-shoe fancy law firm, didn’t so much as bend the knee as prostrate itself on the floor.
Related | How the corporate media has failed us all
Paul, Weiss wasn’t Trump’s first law firm target. That would be Perkins Coie, another enormous white-shoe fancy law firm, and Covington Burling, also an enormous … you get the picture.
What these firms have in common is the extreme crime of having represented Democrats. Trump’s executive orders stripped those firms of their security clearances and limited Perkins Coie’s access to federal buildings.
Perkins Coie sued, and earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell granted their request for a temporary restraining order. Rather than getting the message that it is likely super illegal to attack law firms based on their clients, the Department of Justice filed a status report saying that since it thinks the judge’s decision is wrong, it isn’t really planning to follow it.
Trump then turned around and issued a similar order about Paul, Weiss. Trump hates that firm too because Mark Pomerantz, who investigated Trump’s finances while he was a prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, worked there both before and after his role at the Manhattan DA. But where Perkins Coie seems to be standing firm, Paul, Weiss is made of pure goo.
To get Trump to rescind the executive order, the firm has agreed to a truly wild set of conditions, according to a Thursday night post from Trump on Truth Social. It has agreed to represent clients regardless of political affiliation and to provide pro bono services to the “full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society.” Yes, that’s the firm essentially agreeing to let the administration dictate who its clients are.
The firm also agreed to dedicate $40 million in pro bono services during Trump’s term to “support the administration’s initiatives.” Yes, that’s the firm essentially agreeing that the administration will provide free labor to the administration. Finally, the firm agreed to throw out its diversity policies.
The firm also threw Pomerantz under the bus, with firm chair Brad Karp acknowledging Pomerantz’s “wrongdoing” as a prosecutor. Pomerantz’s wrongdoing, of course, was simply working on a case about Trump. Way to stand up for your employees.
Big law firms are not exactly covering themselves in glory here, mostly staying silent as Trump strikes at the heart of the legal profession. Keeping their heads down isn’t working, however, as Trump has targeted 20 other large firms, this time over DEI initiatives.
Can’t wait for the Supreme Court to decide somehow that the president’s authority includes the ability to attack private entities until they cower and give him money.
Who is the head of DOGE this week?
Who runs DOGE? What, exactly, is DOGE?
The former question is well-settled. Trump shouted out Elon Musk as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency during his address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month: “I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”
Musk bragged about DOGE’s dismantling of USAID. He took credit for canceling 200,000 government credit cards.
Musk’s hype of his role and the scope of DOGE’s power is partly why U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that whatever DOGE is, it has substantial authority separate from the president, which would make it subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
To try to get around this, the administration trotted out Amy Gleason for a court declaration saying she actually runs DOGE. If the court would buy that Gleason helmed DOGE, it would have to discount Musk’s statements about his power and the power of DOGE.
Related | Wag the DOGE: White House in full spin mode over Musk’s chaotic mess
This didn’t work so well. The court noted that if the administration was aware all along that Gleason headed DOGE, it could have said so at any time. So the judge denied the government’s motion to reconsider his earlier ruling. Now, DOGE must begin providing records requested by the plaintiff, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, unless DOGE decides to continue the administration’s current practice of ignoring court orders.
What school is Trump defunding this week?
It’s the University of Pennsylvania! But while the administration pretended a deep commitment to antisemitism drove it to yank $400 million in funding from Columbia University, with Penn, the administration is pretending it has a deep commitment to the integrity of women’s sports.
The administration has said it will withhold $175 million in federal funding from Penn as a “proactive punishment” over its policy of allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams that conform with their gender. Even better, it’s threatening to withhold all Title IX funding.
This might lead you to believe that Penn is chock full of trans athletes, but this is all over the fact that trans athlete Lia Thomas—who graduated three years ago!—competed on the women’s swim team. A fellow swimmer at Penn, Riley Gaines, has made a post-college career out of being a professional anti-trans ghoul about Thomas. Her ceaseless Fox News appearances netted her an invite to Trump’s address to Congress this year, where she dutifully clapped like a seal as Trump bragged about “protecting” women’s sports.
Given the grim news that Columbia is likely to agree to Trump’s demands—trading its academic freedom and First Amendment rights for federal money—it’s tough to see how Penn and all the other schools Trump is targeting won’t end up caving as well.
Which longtime Supreme Court precedent is the administration ignoring this week?
It’s 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor!
Earlier this week, Trump removed the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, continuing his spree of firing people he has no legal right to fire.
Tossing out FTC commissioners, however, is a direct challenge to Humphrey’s Executor, which literally said that the president can’t remove FTC commissioners. The administration’s earlier non-FTC firings were just test runs, pushing at the soft and rotten underbelly of the federal courts to see what it could get away with. This firing is for all the marbles.
If Trump can get the Supreme Court to overturn Humphrey’s Executor, he’ll be free to remove appointees at all independent agencies, making those the very opposite of independent. It’s all part of Trump’s maximalist vision of executive authority, which is basically that neither the courts nor Congress can tell him what to do.
It bears mentioning that normal presidents do not tee up court challenges by taking objectively illegal actions under existing precedent, but nothing about this president is normal.
What other fresh horrors did this week bring?
It’s apparently an impeachable offense for a federal judge to rule against the president. At least that’s the stance of Trump, elected GOP officials, and co-President Musk.
The Trump administration is openly defying court orders, and why not? Lower court judges seem loath to sanction the administration or DOJ lawyers, but it’s time to start.
You know that thing where the administration doesn’t provide any reason for its actions, even if the law requires it? That’s deliberate, designed to remind everyone that Trump’s power is so great that he doesn’t need to justify anything.
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