Andrew Weissmann

There were some firms that did not cave to that pressure.

All four of the executive orders that were challenged in court were immediately struck down.

It's easy to sort of normalize this and forget that

As this administration, Trump's second administration, started, he issued four executive orders with four separate federal judges immediately striking them down, saying they violated the First Amendment.

Those are now up on appeal.

The oral argument just took place.

I think I listened to all of it, and I think most people thought that it went very, very well for the law firms and not so well for the government.

Yes, almost a billion dollars collectively.

But there's also sort of a hidden process to this, which is beyond those law firms, there's been a chilling effect on major law firms doing pro bono work where they would sue the government for various things.

That used to be, when I was in private practice, that was part of what you did with a righteous case.

And sometimes you won and sometimes you didn't win.

But you never were vilified.

There was no retribution from the government for taking on a cause and zealously advocating.

So this is a really, really pernicious tactic that, as I said, was struck down by every court that has heard it.

And I think they're going to lose also.

In D.C., it's worth remembering this is the case where on a Monday a few weeks ago, the government announced that they were not going to appeal anymore any of the four orders.

They were just going to leave them in place.

That got a lot of publicity.

And then Tuesday morning,

the government had to come into court and say, oh, never mind.