A federal judge ruled that cutting off the firm's access to government facilities, among others, was unlawful
US firm Susman Godfrey has beaten US President Donald Trump’s executive order against it in US federal court, reported Reuters.
On Friday, US District Judge Loren AliKhan blocked for good the order which cut off Susman Godfrey’s security clearances, kept the firm’s lawyers from government facilities and officials, and restricted the firm’s access to federal contracting work. The judge determined that the White House order breached Susman Godfrey’s free speech rights as well as due process of law under the US Constitution.
AliKhan ruled that the order represented an unlawful retaliation over Susman Godfrey’s work and its racial diversity initiatives. The firm is acting for election technology supplier Dominion Voting Systems in its challenges to claims that voting fraud occurred during the 2020 US presidential election.
Trump alleged that Susman Godfrey’s hiring practices discriminated on the basis of race. During a May 8 hearing, AliKhan questioned a lawyer for the US justice department about the lack of evidence from the US administration indicating that the firm had broken the law with its employment programs or with its representation of Dominion.
In a 53-page ruling, the judge wrote that the order “goes beyond violating the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
“The order threatens the independence of the bar — a necessity for the rule of law,” she wrote in a snippet Reuters published from the ruling. She added that the order “constitutes unlawful retaliation against Susman for activities that are protected by the First Amendment, including its representation of certain clients, its donations to certain causes, and its expression of its beliefs regarding diversity.”
Susman Godfrey is the fourth law firm to beat Trump’s executive order – Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale also defeated similar orders against them.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields maintained in a statement published by Reuters that the granting of security clearances was “a sensitive judgment call entrusted to the president.
