Judge temporarily blocks Trump from retaliating against firm that sued
Fox News for election lies
[April 16, 2025]
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
A federal judge on Tuesday placed on hold much of Donald Trump’s order
forbidding the federal government from doing business with anyone who
hires the law firm Susman Godfrey, making it the fourth time a judge has
found the president’s targeting of law firms is likely unconstitutional.
“The framers of our constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of
power,” District Court Judge Loren AliKhan said as she entered the
temporary restraining order on behalf of Susman, which represented a
voting machine firm that won a $787 billion settlement from Fox News
over its airing of lies about Trump's 2020 loss.
Trump’s executive order cited the firm’s election work as a reason it
was targeted. Several other firms that have been targeted by Trump
entered into settlements, promising to provide hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of free legal work for the president’s favored causes.
Susman and at least three others have chosen to fight, and all have so
far won in court.
Don Verrilli, who represented Susman in court on Tuesday, urged the
judge to continue that winning streak. “We’re sliding very fast into an
abyss here,” he said. “There’s only one way to stop that slide, it’s for
courts to act decisively, and to act decisively now.”
Though the restraining order technically is only good for 14 days, the
judge left little doubt as to her views on the constitutionality of
Trump's order. She found it likely violates the first and fifth
amendments of the U.S. Constitution, saying that "the government cannot
hold lawyers hostage to force them to agree with it.”
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President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he departs after
welcoming the 2025 College Football National Champions, the Ohio
State University football team, during an event on the South Lawn of
the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Richard Lawson, who argued against the order for the Department of
Justice, contended it fell squarely in the tradition of presidential
decisions regarding contracting and federal facilities that date
back to President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s requiring federal
contractors to not discriminate. Lawson was unable to convince the
judge to wait until federal agencies develop guidance about how to
implement Trump's order.
AliKhan put on hold provisions in the order that ban federal
contractors to companies that hire Susman Godfrey and forbids its
employees from entering federal buildings. Verrilli said Susman
Godfrey received no warning or explanation of the federal order, but
noted that Trump signed it a few weeks before the start of another
libel trial over his 2020 election lies, this time targeting the
conservative network Newsmax, owned by a prominent Trump ally.
Though other firms have also won rulings putting orders targeting
them on hold, Attorney General Pam Bondi has sharply criticized at
least one of them and told federal agencies they retain the
authority to “decide with whom they will work.”
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