


The temporary restraining order, announced by Judge John Bates at the end of a hastily scheduled Friday hearing, pauses parts of the order instructing agencies to terminate contracts with the firm and its clients, as well as the order’s directives seeking to limit the firm’s access to federal officials and buildings.
The Jenner & Block hearing unfolded minutes after a different judge in the same courthouse heard a similar request from the law firm WilmerHale, which was also targeted by Trump in an executive order issued this week.
At that hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, said he was “inclined” to temporarily block parts of Trump’s executive order targeting the firm, saying he had concerns about how the order could chill the company’s legal work.
In his executive orders, Trump also said he was taking aim at Jenner & Block and WilmerHale because of their work on political causes he disagreed with and because of their ties to the Mueller probe, as both firms previously or currently employed veterans of that investigation.
Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, expressed concern at various points about how the president’s order could cause some clients to go elsewhere for legal representation if they had concerns with how effectively WilmerHale’s attorneys could provide legal services.
Trump’s order directs federal agencies to suspend the security clearances and access to federal buildings of lawyers for the law firm and to curtail hiring people from the firm.