President Donald Trump speaks while signing an executive order related to drug prices in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Monday, May 12, 2025, (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein).
The American Bar Association (ABA) is taking legal action against the Trump administration to prevent the alleged misuse of the presidency to pursue an “unlawful policy of intimidation against lawyers and law firms.” This action comes as the ABA claims that lawyers and firms are being targeted because Donald Trump sees them as adversaries due to their clients or the lawyers they employ.
The ABA, which is among the world’s largest voluntary groups for legal professionals, is seeking a legal declaration that the administration’s tactics—termed in the lawsuit as the “Law Firm Intimidation Policy”—are “unconstitutional.” They also request a court injunction to halt the enforcement of these measures.
“Since taking office earlier this year, President Donald Trump and his administration have used the vast powers of the executive branch to coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, causes and policy positions the president does not like, the lawsuit asserts,” according to a news release from the organization. “The Trump administration has carried out this policy through a series of executive orders, letters, memos and public statements designed to damage certain law firms and intimidate others. These relentless attacks have produced a chilling effect across the legal profession — including on many members of the American Bar Association — causing harm to the justice system at large and limiting access to representation for individuals and organizations whose positions the administration disfavors.”
According to the 85-page complaint, the current administration poses the greatest danger to legal professionals in the nearly 150 years since the ABA was established with the goal of defending “the rule of law” and providing “access to justice for all.”
“[T]he American legal profession faces a challenge that is different from all that has come before,” the complaint says. “It is unprecedented and uniquely dangerous to the rule of law,” adding that its created a ‘blizzard-like chill on the profession.”
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The organization alleges that the “materially identical” executive orders targeting law firms were designed to produce “deals or settlements” favorable to the administration and prevent legal professionals from challenging the Trump administration’s policies in court, “or from even speaking publicly in support of policies or causes that the President does not like.”
The complaint highlights the executive order issued against Paul Weiss, the third firm targeted by the Trump administration. While the president’s executive order ostensibly sought “retribution” against the firm for having “previously employed two lawyers who had done work that angered President Trump,” it soon became apparent that such vengeance was “never the sole — or even primary — purpose of his punitive order, as it was rescinded after the firm conformed its policies “to the President’s liking” and pledged $40 million in pro bono services to causes championed by Trump.
“In the end, the President was not simply punishing Paul Weiss; he was dragooning Paul Weiss into his service. Even more importantly, the President was sending a message in order to coerce Paul Weiss and other law firms into abandoning representations, speech, and other conduct the President dislikes (such as immigration cases or diversity initiatives),” the complaint states. “Using the powers of the Executive Branch to target private citizens and private firms for destruction is unprecedented, and bad enough regardless of the President’s motives. But the Administration’s Law Firm Intimidation Policy is uniquely destructive because of the critical role that its targets — lawyers — fulfill in our constitutional system.”
The organization contends the measures making up the “Law Firm Intimidation Policy” are discriminatory based on viewpoint and little more than coercive attacks aimed at suppressing free speech that amount to “clear violations of First Amendment rights.”
“This is the time to stand up, speak out and seek relief from our courts” William R. Bay, president of the American Bar Association, said in a statement. “There has never been a more urgent time for the ABA to defend its members, our profession and the rule of law itself.”
The lawsuit comes less than a week after the administration said it planned to cut the legal organization out of the process for evaluating the president’s federal judicial nominees for the first time in more than 70 years.
