President Donald Trump takes on lawyers who have challenged him in the past
U.S. President Donald Trump displays a signed an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on March 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images/Win McNamee
As President Donald Trump pursues much of his second-term agenda using executive actions that continue to be tested in the courts, he has signed off on a number of executive orders targeting lawyers and law firms who have a record of challenging him, a move that constitutional law experts say is designed to tamp down dissent.
In the past week, Trump signed two executive orders suspending the security clearances of two major firms that played a key role in suing his administration during his first term, and he issued a memo directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate and sanction firms deemed to be engaging in "frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation."
"The law firms have to behave themselves, and we’ve proven that," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. "They behaved very badly, very wrongly."
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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