Leading Colorado Civil Rights Law Firms Join Amicus Brief Opposing Trump’s Retaliatory and Unconstitutional Executive Orders
Fifteen Colorado civil rights firms were among over 500 law firms — small and large, around the country — who joined an amicus brief rejecting in the strongest terms President Trump’s attempt to silence and intimidate private law firms and attorneys.
Over the past few weeks, Trump has issued a series of Executive Orders (EOs) specifically targeting a number of prominent law firms that have represented individuals and entities he disfavors or have taken legal positions with which he disagrees. Each EO mandates measures that threaten to destroy the firm in question by, for example, terminating their ability to enter federal buildings or to represent certain types of clients or causes. His EOs threaten to punish lawyers who bring cases that he disagrees with. These efforts are intended to frighten private lawyers and law firms into compliance, and to eliminate access to legal representation for causes and people he does not like.
Trump’s abuse of his executive powers to bend the rule of law in his favor threatens the very foundation of our democracy. The Constitution does not provide the president with the power to dictate which individuals, causes, or cases get a voice in our system of justice.
While many law firms — including several prominent, well-resourced firms — have caved to these craven demands, at least three have pushed back hard: Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Jenner & Block, and Perkins Coie have all filed federal lawsuits demanding that the EOs be declared unconstitutional and that the court issue an injunction prohibiting Trump from attempting to enforce them.
On Friday, the undersigned Colorado law firms joined an amicus brief in the case filed by Perkins Coie and joined together to issue this Statement.
Attorneys who defend our civil rights, regardless of the popularity of the clients or their cases, are acting in the finest traditions of our profession. From the NAACP attorneys who led the fight to desegregate our country, to the many Colorado civil rights attorneys who have taken courageous stands representing prisoners challenging inhumane and discriminatory conditions, workers seeking a just and equitable workplace, LGBTQ couples seeking the right to marry, and persons detained in Guantanamo during the “War on Terror,” it is a fundamental value of our nation that every person is entitled to zealous representation in court. It is crucial to our democracy that individuals have access to counsel no matter how they are viewed by the public or the current administration, especially if they are challenging the government or the party in power.
The threats from Trump’s EOs reach beyond high-profile law firms, clients, and causes. If law firms let themselves be bullied — if they do not come together to express the danger these threats pose to the entire profession — these EOs could make it difficult for anyone to find a lawyer willing to advocate for even a routine case if the client is a member of a disfavored group or has taken a public position adverse to the administration. What Trump seeks is nothing less than control over the legal profession, the better to insulate his abuses and destruction from accountability in court, and to eliminate voices of dissent in violation of our sacred First Amendment rights.
Lawyers represent the voices of the most vulnerable in our legal system; they must remain free to raise and argue issues that require thorough consideration by an independent legal system. A government that threatens the legal profession is a government that no longer believes in the rule of law. There is no greater threat to liberty than an unchecked government.
All Colorado lawyers take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Colorado. We stand by that oath. We commit to continue to represent our clients zealously and without prejudice, and we urge all other attorneys to stand up against the grave threat posed by Trump’s EOs. It is only in collective action that we will be successful at stopping these flagrant abuses of power.
Civil Rights Litigation Group, PLLC
Holland, Holland Edwards & Grossman, LLC
