Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced he has joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting law firm Perkins Coie on Wednesday.
Perkins Coie is a Seattle-based law firm, and in a release, the Nevada AG says President Donald Trump has targeted it for representing clients and taking positions disfavored by the president.
The president issued an executive order last week designed to punish the firm by suspending the security clearances of its lawyers, denying firm employees access to federal buildings, and terminating their federal contracts, the Associated Press reports.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing parts of the order on Wednesday.
“Attempts to bully or intimidate legal professionals for doing their job is an attack on the integrity of our legal system as a whole,” said AG Ford. “To target a law firm for political reasons is anti-American and deeply concerning. Lawyers must feel safe to represent their clients to the best of their ability without having their livelihood or safety put in the crosshairs of partisan political posturing. Otherwise, our legal system cannot function as it should.”
The states argue that the president’s March 6 executive order is an attempt to exclude certain lawyers and certain viewpoints from reaching a court of law at all.
The fact sheet that accompanied the executive order said the White House “will not tolerate” that Perkins Coie “has filed lawsuits against the Trump Administration.”
The states’ brief acknowledges that the law firm and state government have been on opposing sides of legal matters.
The states believe that regardless of the politics of the day, it is important for clients to be represented effectively to allow judges, juries, and the court system to make fair and reasoned decisions.
Joining AG Ford and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who is leading the coalition, in filing the briefs are attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont.
You can read the brief in its entirety below.
