We Frequently Disagree with Perkins Coie in Court—but Today, We Stand with Them

NRDC has fought in court against lawyers from the firm Perkins Coie for more than three decades. But today, in a brief filed in federal court by NRDC and other nonprofit law groups, we are standing with Perkins Coie and against President Trump’s illegal efforts to muzzle critics, punish foes, and undermine constitutional liberties. 

Why? Perkins Coie, like every one of us, has a constitutional right to challenge the Trump administration, or any administration, free from fear of governmental retribution—and regardless of whether the president or anyone else agrees with its position. 

At NRDC, we sue presidents and administrations of both parties if they violate laws that protect our environment and health. Businesses and individuals may sue the government for violating other laws or rights of concern to them. 

Thanks to the foresight of our nation’s founders, this is our shared right: The First Amendment guarantees every person’s freedom to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” including suing in court. This freedom is among “the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights,” as the U.S. Supreme Court has put it. 

Last month, President Trump penned a ludicrous executive order (EO) to punish Perkins Coie for, principally, representing clients who displeased the president. The EO took steps to suspend the firm’s lawyers’ security clearances, terminate federal contracts concerning the firm, limit the firm’s access to federal buildings, and prohibit federal hiring of any Perkins Coie employee. Taken together, such sanctions would damage—and could destroy—any firm’s capacity to do business. That seems to be the president’s plain intent.

The EO claims to be premised on the White House’s desire to de-weaponize the justice system. But deploying presidential power to punish law firms for their past clients or causes defines the weaponization of governmental power. The White House’s message is clear: If you challenge this administration, we will make you pay a price. 

As if to drive that point home, the president has now targeted multiple law firms with similar EOs. Some principled and courageous law firms have sued. As lawsuits here and here make clear, President Trump’s retaliation against them violates their rights under the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution. (On April 11, 2025, NRDC also joined amicus briefs in support of similar First Amendment lawsuits filed by the law firms Wilmer Cuttler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and Jenner and Block LLP against the U.S. Department of Justice and other governmental defendants.) Other law firms, however—perhaps worried about the cost of defending even their own constitutional rights—have succumbed. A chill has begun to settle on the Bill of Rights. 

The executive orders punishing Perkins Coie and other law firms are part of a pattern of attacks on the judicial system. Fortunately, the Constitution protects federal judges from political pressure by guaranteeing them life tenure so long as they don’t commit impeachable offenses. This has not stopped the president or his allies from disparaging judges online and threatening to impeach some who have ruled against the administration in the court’s role to vindicate the judiciary’s emphatic duty under the Constitution to “say what the law is.” 

The president has even directed the attorney general of the United States to seek sanctions against attorneys who engage in “frivolous” or “unreasonable” litigation. Courts, of course, already have, and judiciously exercise, the authority to dismiss cases that lack legal merit. The impact of this bullying tactic may be more ironic than real, for it is the frivolous arguments of Justice Department political appointees that are ignoring the Constitution’s settled meaning. Nevertheless, the president’s threat to use the Justice Department to go after lawyers personally may make some adversaries think twice. 

The president is targeting lawyers because lawyers are effectively resisting his administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions. Since January 20, 2025, advocacy groups, state attorneys general, and others have filed more than 180 lawsuits in federal courts, alleging that the administration has taken actions that fail to comport with U.S. law. In at least 50 cases and counting, federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties have paused or halted some of the administration’s actions. The scope and number of these judicial orders offer some measure of this administration’s reckless disregard for the law. 

And this is why we must never give in. As lawyers, we enforce the law. A courtroom is not a campaign rally or a social media platform. It’s a place where persuasion requires facts and a neutral application of legal principles. It’s where anyone in this country with a legitimate grievance can step forward and attempt to hold the government accountable for violating the law.  

Over the years, Perkins Coie has been NRDC’s opposing counsel in a number of cases. The firm has represented clients that have fought NRDC’s efforts to protect Arctic waters from destructive oil and gas drilling. It has resisted a challenge that NRDC lawyers litigated to a federal interstate highway project that threatened Indiana wetlands. It opposed NRDC in a lawsuit over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s inadequate regulation of hazardous air pollutants nationwide. As these cases illustrate, we frequently disagree with Perkins Coie’s clients or positions. 

But if Perkins Coie isn’t free to represent its clients’ interests, free from governmental intimidation, then no one else is either. Today, we stand with our opposing counsel in defense of our shared and fundamental freedoms.

This blog was originally published on April 9, 2025, and has been updated with new information and links.