Judge snaps at DOJ lawyer arguing Trump executive order targeting Big Law firm can't be illegal

Source: Insider

Judge snaps at DOJ lawyer arguing Trump executive order targeting Big Law firm can't be illegal

Jacob Shamsian
Mon, April 28, 2025 at 4:04 PM EDT 4 min read

• A federal judge appeared impatient with a DOJ lawyer defending a Trump Big Law executive order.
• Jenner & Block asked a judge to permanently block the order, saying it was illegally targeted.
• The Justice Department lawyer struggled to come up with legal rationales at a Monday hearing.

A federal judge appeared poised to hand Big Law another win after he snapped Monday at a Justice Department lawyer attempting to justify President Donald Trump's executive order targeting one firm.

During Monday's court hearing, Richard Lawson, the Justice Department attorney, argued that Trump's order couldn't possibly be illegal because it required federal agencies to act "consistent with applicable law."

Lawson appeared to struggle through arguments, at times not giving direct responses to questions from the judge.

Lawson said Trump could target Jenner & Block, the Big Law firm, because the president said "Jenner discriminates against its employees based on race" — even though no court or government agency had come to that conclusion.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-snaps-doj-lawyer-arguing-200407632.html