Over 90 law professors in Harvard Law School recently signed a letter detailing their concern about recent attacks by the White House on the legal profession.
The acts complained of include singling out lawyers and law firms to enact retribution for representing clients disfavoured by the government, which undermines the Sixth Amendment of the American Constitution, dealing with the right to a fair trial and the right to counsel. Other attacks include threatening law firms and legal clinics for their lawyers’ pro bono work or government service for the previous administration.
The letter condemns the attacks, stating that they undermine constitutional principles and create fear of imprisonment or deportation for lawful speech and political activism among the student body. In this way the attacks prevent the functioning of the law school and of society in general.
The Harvard Law Record wrote that the faculty open letter was likely referencing Tufts PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk who was detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) officials in Somerville, or to the deportation of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil or Brown Professor Dr. Rasha Alawieh. The references to law firms could come from the capitulation of Paul Weiss and Skadden to the Trump Department of Justice’s repeated threats to lawyers who challenge administration policies. The firms agreed to dedicate free legal services worth millions to “mutually agreed” causes supported by the administration.
President Donald J. Trump had issued executive orders damaging the business of law firms such as Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale, firms which had hired lawyers who had previously investigated President Trump in the context of the numerous lawsuits against him. Another executive order went against firm Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The American President has also issued a memorandum directing his administration to seek sanctions and make recommendations to strip federal contracts and security clearances for lawyers who “engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States.” The actions are part of a wider attack on the independence of the judiciary, which includes calls to impeach judges who rule against the policies of the administration.
The Harvard faculty letter spotlights the fundamental commitment of the legal profession to the rule of law, to the equality of all people before the law, and to impartial administration of law.
To read the letter in full, please click here.