Opinion | A playbook for law firms and colleges that gets up to President Trump

In his attacks against law firms, universities and other American institutions, President Trump is based on an illusion. The illusion is that the institutions are able to react and that face a choice between principle and survival.

These institutions must not capitulate to Mr. Trump. They have a realistic path to defeat his intimidation. Some law firms and others have started fighting. In this way, they provided the beginnings of a playbook to resist his attempts to weaken the fundamental principles of American democracy, including the right process, freedom of speech and the constitutional system of controls and sales.

For anyone skeptical of this idea and sees Mr. Trump as an omnipotent, it is worth recognizing that law firms have already won the judgments of the court That blockade The executive orders of Mr. Trump against them. Many legal analysts believe that the higher courts will also reject orders as illegal. It is also worth mentioning the many legal defeats of Mr. Trump’s first mandate. The courts, including the Supreme Court, rejected his efforts to overturn the presidential electoral result of 2020; He prevented him from adding a citizenship question to the census; And he blocked his family separation policy on the southern border. A basic political movement helped to defeat his effort Abbogare Obamacare even if the Republicans controlled both the Chamber and the Senate.

Yes, Mr. Trump adopted a more extreme approach to executive power in his second term. He won some early political victories and will win more. However, he faces true constraints on his power. In fact, the most probable path of American automotive depends not only on a hungry president of power, but also on the voluntary capitulation of a crowded civil society. It depends on the incorrect belief that a president is invincible. Anyone who has faced a bully of the school courtyard should recognize this principle: the illusion of the foreignness is often its greatest resource.

We understand why the leaders of the main institutions are nervous. Taking the President of the United States requires courage. This is a time for courage.

The playbook starts With the recognition that the capitulation is condemned. Some law firms and companies, as well as Columbia University, have made a different bet, of course. But the example of law firms demonstrates the problems with the capitulation.

Trump has signed the executive orders that punish several companies that have done nothing wrong. They simply employed lawyers who represented the Democrats, defended the liberal causes or participated in the investigations on Mr. Trump. Orders are lacking in any significant legal topic and however contain serious punishments. They try to prevent the lawyers of companies from entering federal buildings and meeting with federal officials, provisions that would prevent companies from representing many customers.

A company that was subject to an executive order – Paul, Weiss – surrender And they promised concessions, including $ 40 million in pro bono works for Trump -made causes. Three other companies – Milbank; Skaddden, Arps; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher – have accepted in a proactive way of treating the White House and made their concessions.

A crucial fact on these agreements is that they do not include any binding promise from the White House. Trump can threaten companies again every time he chooses and requires further concessions. These companies are in virtual controlled administration to Mr. Trump. So it is Columbia, who Gived to Mr. Trump After threatening federal funding. The University has not even won the restoration of these funding when accepting his requests; He simply won permission to start negotiating with the administration.

The influence of Mr. Trump on compliant law firms should be particularly chilling for their customers. The companies have just reported their will to abandon customers who have fallen into the discomfort with the federal government. It does not seem like a quality that you would like in a lawyer. “Once you make concessions once, it is difficult not to do them anymore”, Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University and a legal scholar through training, he said When discussing attacks on higher education.

The second element In the playbook it is an insistence on the right process. The American legal system has procedures to deal with the various accusations of Trump against these institutions. If law firms behave inappropriately, the courts can punish them. If a university is violating the civil rights of students – tolerating anti -Semitism, for example, the Department of Justice can present accusations. These processes allow each part of presenting tests. They prevent the abuse of power and establish basic rules that other organizations can follow.

Trump could win some cases that follow the right process, and this is fine. Some universities really have allowed Their Jewish students must be threatened. But the appropriate remedy is not the arbitrary cancellation of unrelated research funding, potentially slowing down treatments for cancer, heart disease, childhood diseases and more. Columbia managed to adopt the wrong strategy in both directions. He was too slow to solve his problems and then prostrated himself to Mr. Trump. Other universities should both put their homes in order and Be ready to sue the administration.

The three law firms that have filed a seeds to block the executive orders of Mr. Trump – Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and Wilmerhale – provide a model. They are winning so far in court. It is important to underline that they have won the support of many conservatives. Like our counterparties in the editorial committee of the Wall Street Journal he wroteThe Trump campaign against law firms “breaks a principle of milestone of American justice”.

Paul Clement, perhaps the most successful living republican defender at the Supreme Court, represents Wilmerhale and wrote a thunder brief on his behalf. “It is therefore a fundamental principle of our legal system that” one should not be penalized for simply defending or pursuing a cause “,” Mr. Clement wroteciting a sentence of the 1974 Supreme Court. He described the orders of Mr. Trump as “an unprecedented assault on that rock principle”. Judge Richard Leon, a nominated by George W. Bush, accepted Mr. Clement’s request for a temporary restrictive order.

This scheme should give confidence to law firms that will continue to prevail, as long as they fight. The Supreme Court is deeply conservative on many issues and promotes an expansive definition of executive power. But he has already challenged Mr. Trump and conservative legal experts who share the perspectives of the court they are amazing to his assault on the legal system.

Any institution that resists Mr. Trump should be prepared to make sacrifices. Universities may have to spend more than their equipment, as they do during economic recessions. The partners of the legal league can lose a certain income. But they can afford it; Partner of Paul, Weiss gained $ 6.6 million in 2023 on average. A mistake that submissive law firms have imagined having some possibilities to emerge unknown once once Mr. Trump has targeted them. Fighting it has costs and delivery has costs. Yes, some students from the best laws of law claim that they will no longer interview to companies like Skaddden. “We are not trying to sacrifice our moral values”, a student at Georgetown University he said.

Finally, the playbook He asks for solidarity, especially for the institutions that Trump has not (still) targeted. The initial response to his executive orders of many other law firms was the opposite of solidarity. According to reports, they tried to steal customers and hire lawyers from threatened companies. Most large companies He also refused to sign a legal brief in defense of their sector. Their meekness in the end is self -harm. The campaign to submit your law firms will be defeated or will expand.

We are pleased to see that other companies they talked. Even better, some companies – Williams & Connolly, Cooley and Clement & Murphy – represent the three fights of executive orders. The company managers can also make the difference by calling, even privately, that they will not abandon any law firm that Mr. Trump attacks. The business world has a lot of at stake. The United States partially host a share of financial and corporate activities because investors have confidence that the rule of law prevails here. If political power, on the other hand, replaces the signed contracts and the rule of law, American affairs will suffer from it.

Reducing the abuse of power is intrinsically difficult. It can also be stimulating. People who do so often look proudly to their actions and are rightly celebrated for this after a crisis has passed. But the crises usually don’t end alone. Solve them requires courage and action.