2026年3月3日 / 美国东部时间下午1:34 / CBS新闻
华盛顿电 — 美国司法部正在收回其终止对下级法院判决的上诉的举措。此前数小时，司法部刚刚表示将不再为这些针对四家律所的指令进行辩护。
周二，司法部向华盛顿特区美国上诉法院告知，现在它寻求撤回自愿驳回上诉的请求。根据提交的文件，这四家律所的律师反对这一举措，称其是“未经解释的180度大转弯”。
司法部在其动议中表示，无论律所立场如何，继续上诉是其“特权”。
苏斯曼·戈德费律师事务所（Susman Godfrey）在一份声明中称：“昨晚，政府向法院表示它已经放弃，甚至不会尝试为其违宪的行政令进行辩护。今天，它却逆转了立场。”
该律所表示：“无论如何，苏斯曼·戈德费将毫不含糊地捍卫自身权益和法治。”
佩金斯·科伊律师事务所（Perkins Coie）和詹纳·布洛克律师事务所（Jenner & Block）的代表尚未立即回应置评请求。
司法部的这一逆转发生在不到24小时前，政府律师在一份文件中表示，他们将自愿放弃对下级法院四项判决的上诉，这些判决认定特朗普的行政令违宪。该终止诉讼的动议由司法部副部长斯坦利·伍德沃德（Stanley Woodward）签署。
司法部的书面辩论将在未来几天提交给正在进行的上诉案，上诉法院尚未批准政府最初的驳回动议。
司法部拒绝对这一逆转置评。白宫发言人也未立即回应置评请求。
这些判决源于特朗普去年发布的行政令，旨在惩罚四家律所——佩金斯·科伊、威尔默·汉莱、詹纳·布洛克和苏斯曼·戈德费——因其雇佣的律师和承办的案件。这些措施试图对这些律所施加相同制裁，针对其有政府合同的客户，限制其进入联邦建筑和接触官员，并暂停其员工的安全许可。
第五家律所保尔·威斯（Paul, Weiss）也收到了特朗普的指令，但在该律所与白宫达成协议，为政府支持的事业提供4000万美元公益法律服务后，指令被撤销。
另外九家律所也与总统达成了类似协议，以避免行政令，并承诺为特朗普政府支持的举措提供数亿美元免费法律服务。
起诉特朗普政府的四家律所已在初审中胜诉，四位不同的联邦法官以压倒性多数支持他们，认定行政令违反了第一、第四和第六修正案。
这些指令是特朗普第二任期头几个月推出的，是总统重返权力后惩罚其认为的政治对手的更广泛努力的一部分。威尔默·汉莱和詹纳·布洛克两家律所雇佣了曾参与前特别检察官罗伯特·穆勒调查俄罗斯干预2016年大选的律师，包括穆勒本人。
苏斯曼·戈德费曾代表 Dominion 投票系统公司起诉福克斯新闻，后者曾播放关于2020年大选公正性的无根据指控。福克斯新闻同意向 Dominion 支付7.87亿美元和解此案。
佩金斯·科伊曾在2016年大选期间代表前国务卿希拉里·克林顿，当时她的对手是特朗普。该律所还聘请了一家研究公司，该公司聘请了前英国间谍克里斯托弗·斯蒂尔，后者制作了臭名昭著的“斯蒂尔报告”。
Justice Department reverses course and now intends to defend Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms
March 3, 2026 / 1:34 PM EST / CBS News
Washington — The Justice Department is walking back its move to end its appeals of lower-court decisions that invalidated President Trump’s executive orders targeting four law firms— just hours after it said it would drop its defense of the directives.
The Justice Department informed the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that it is now seeking to withdraw its request to voluntarily dismiss the appeals. Lawyers for the four firms oppose the move, calling it an “unexplained about-face,” according to the filing.
The Justice Department said in its motion that regardless of the firms’ position, it is its “prerogative” to pursue the appeal.
Susman Godfrey said in a statement, “Yesterday evening, the Administration told the Court that it gave up and wouldn’t even try to defend its unconstitutional executive orders. Today, it reversed course.”
“Regardless, Susman Godfrey will defend itself and the rule of law — without equivocation,” the firm said.
Representatives for Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The reversal from the Justice Department comes less than 24 hours after government lawyers said in a filing that they would be moving to voluntarily drop the department’s appeals of the four lower court decisions that struck down Mr. Trump’s executive orders as unconstitutional. The motion to end the case was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official.
The Justice Department’s written arguments were due in the ongoing appeals in the coming days, and the appeals court has not yet signed off on the government’s initial motion to dismiss.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the reversal. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The rulings stemmed from executive orders Mr. Trump issued last year that sought to punish four firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey — because of lawyers they hired and cases they worked on. The measures all attempted to impose the same sanctions on the firms, going after their clients with government contracts, restricting their access to federal buildings and officials, and suspending security clearances held by their employees.
A fifth firm, Paul, Weiss, was also the subject of a directive from Mr. Trump, but it was rescinded after the firm reached a deal with the White House to provide $40 million in pro bono work for causes the administration supports.
Nine other firms reached similar agreements with the president to avoid executive orders and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services for initiatives backed by the Trump administration.
The four firms that sued the Trump administration won their cases at the trial-court level, with four different federal judges ruling overwhelmingly in their favor and finding the executive orders violated the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments.
The directives rolled out in the first months of Mr. Trump’s second term were part of a broader effort by the president to punish his perceived political enemies upon his return to power. Two of the firms, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, hired lawyers who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including Mueller himself.
Susman Godfrey represented Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News stemming from baseless allegations about the integrity of the 2020 election that were broadcast by the network. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787 million to settle the case.
Perkins Coie represented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, in which her opponent was Mr. Trump. It also hired a research firm that retained former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the infamous “Steele Dossier”.
