Perkins Coie: the template order, struck down in full

Editor's note: a federal court declared the order unconstitutional and permanently enjoined it.

On March 6, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14230, disparagingly titled around 'the dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP,' suspending security clearances for firm personnel, barring them from federal buildings, directing agencies to terminate the firm's contracts, and requiring federal contractors to disclose any relationship with the firm, citing Perkins Coie's work for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

Judge Beryl Howell granted a temporary restraining order within days, citing First Amendment concerns, then permanently struck down the order on May 2, 2025, calling it 'an unprecedented attack' on the legal system and voiding it 'in its entirety.' More than 500 other law firms filed in support of Perkins Coie, warning the order 'would threaten the survival of any law firm' targeted this way.

DOJ appealed Howell's ruling. In March 2026 it moved to dismiss the appeal, then withdrew that motion and kept defending the order, and a D.C. Circuit panel heard the consolidated appeal on May 14, 2026. This was the template all subsequent law-firm orders (LFU-03, LFU-04, LFU-06) followed almost verbatim, and all were struck down on the same constitutional grounds.