Trump's war on lawyers: trampling over the Constitution

Donald Trump has gone to war with America's legal profession, said Ruth Marcus in The New Yorker. His goal is not only to avenge himself on perceived enemies, but to intimidate – and it seems to be working. Over the past few weeks, he has effectively threatened to put several major US law firms out of business, by signing executive orders terminating their federal contracts, instructing state agencies to end contracts with the firms' clients, and banning their lawyers from government buildings.

One of the firms, Perkins Coie, which worked closely with Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, has fought the order in court and won a restraining order. Two more followed last week. But another – Paul, Weiss, whose lawyers had investigated Trump's business dealings and sued alleged 6 January rioters – chose to capitulate. It struck a deal to get the order lifted, agreeing to give $40 million in pro bono services to Trump-approved causes.

I find it hard to sympathise with Perkins Coie, said Andrew C. McCarthy in National Review. For there's no denying that Democrats have engaged in some egregious "lawfare abuses" in recent years. And the two Perkins Coie lawyers who were at the forefront of the Clinton campaign scheme "to smear Trump as a Kremlin plant" have a lot to answer for. That said, they left the firm years ago, and there's no justification for Trump's vendetta. His retribution should be that he won the presidency – not least because the public disliked his opponents' lawfare tactics – and got to fire the officials who had persecuted him. But imposing punishments without trial? Violating the right to due process? In short, trampling the Constitution – in order to "destroy his enemies". That's a different matter.

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The rule of law is on the line here, said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. Not content with targeting the four law firms, Trump last week issued a memo instructing his attorney general to punish any firm that pursues a case the administration deems "unscrupulous". The message to any who might dare to oppose him is clear: "You could be next." And by caving in to Trump, Paul, Weiss has already set a terrible precedent.

The silence of most other law firms has been deafening, said Deborah Pearlstein in The New York Times. Rather than show solidarity with their fellow litigation powerhouses, some have apparently even tried to poach their lawyers and clients. The wealthy, well-connected firms known collectively as Big Law are wrong to imagine that they can appease Trump, or go through the next four years without their clients taking positions that irk the administration. For their own sake, and that of American democracy, they need to stand up for themselves, join forces – and "fight back".