特朗普发布新法令，试图威慑法律界
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 24 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）特朗普总统通过一份新备忘录扩大了对他不喜欢的律师的报复行动，该备忘录威胁要动用政府权力惩罚任何在他看来不公平地挑战其政府的律师事务所。《纽约时报》记者德夫林·巴雷特对此作了下述报道。
该备忘录指示司法部和国土安全部负责人“寻求对那些对美国进行无意义、不合理和无理诉讼的律师和律师事务所实施制裁”，或对联邦机构审理的事务实施制裁。
特朗普于周五深夜发布了这项命令。此前的一周，美国法律界经历了动荡。美国顶级律所之一 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison 与白宫达成协议，免除了特朗普上周发布的一项惩罚性法令。
Vanita Gupta 是一名民权律师，曾担任司法部官员，既起诉过政府，也在法庭上为其辩护。她表示，特朗普的备忘录“威胁和恐吓那些希望政府遵守法律和宪法的诉讼当事人，从而攻击了我们法律体系的根基。”
总统长期以来一直抱怨，民主党倾向的律师和律师事务所以调查和诉讼的形式针对他及其盟友，进行他所谓的“法律战”，他声称这些调查和诉讼是出于政治动机。自宣誓就职以来，他已经针对了三家律所，但新备忘录似乎威胁要对任何激怒他的律所或任何这样做的律师进行类似的惩罚。
特朗普的备忘录称，这些措施对于确保法律行业的“问责制”是必要的。
在特朗普发布命令暂停保罗·韦斯律师事务所律师的安全许可并严格限制其员工进入政府大楼或获得政府工作后，该律师事务所同意做出一系列承诺，以促使总统取消该命令。
作为协议的一部分，该律师事务所表示将为特朗普倡导的事业提供 4000 万美元的法律服务，包括他的反犹太主义工作组。
另一家被特朗普瞄准的律师事务所 Perkins Coie 选择了不同的策略——在联邦法院起诉他并获得针对总统的临时限制令。
特朗普对律师事务所的攻击，以及保罗·韦斯律师事务所决定通过诉讼来求和而不是在法庭上决一死战，在法律界引起了震动。特朗普最新要求的范围如此广泛，与此同时，他还加大了对法官的公开攻击，以及法院可以告诉他该做什么或不该做什么的想法。
行政部门“既不应该惧怕那些挑战它的人，也不应该惩罚那些挑战它的人，也不应成为轻率行为的仲裁者。已经有保护措施来解决这个问题，”古普塔说。“此刻需要律师和法律界的勇气和集体行动，而不是投降。”
这也发生在华盛顿一名联邦法官与政府就特朗普一周前援引《外国敌人法案》展开对决之际，特朗普援引该法案立即将 100 多名委内瑞拉移民送往萨尔瓦多的一个大型监狱，这些移民是帮派成员。
民权活动人士表示，驱逐出境违反了法律，政府拒绝就其行为给出明确答复，这违背了美国司法系统的根本原则。
一家就政府政策起诉其的律师事务所表示，面对白宫的威胁，它不会退缩。
旧金山律师事务所 Keker, Van Nest & Peters 的领导人曾就特朗普政府的移民突袭行动起诉该律师事务所，他们称特朗普的最新备忘录“不可原谅且卑鄙无耻”。
“我们的自由取决于律师是否愿意代表不受欢迎的人和事业，包括对联邦政府不利的事务，”该律师事务所在一份声明中表示。“我们的职业应该为每一位客户提供热心的法律代理，而不必担心遭到报复，无论他们的政治派别或支付能力如何。”
该律师事务所还鼓励其他律师加入全国性行动，在 Perkins Coie 起诉特朗普的诉讼中提交一份“法庭之友”简报。
特朗普周五晚上发布的备忘录名为“防止滥用司法系统和联邦法院”，其中抱怨称律师长期以来在反对他或驱逐出境时一直存在不道德行为。备忘录还暗示特朗普政府将对那些无理取闹的律师进行纪律处分，“特别是涉及国家安全、国土安全、公共安全或选举诚信的案件。”
特朗普还利用这一声明攻击了一位名叫马克·埃利亚斯的律师。
埃利亚斯曾在 Perkins Coie 工作，长期代表民主党人。特朗普指责埃利亚斯等人在 2016 年和 2017 年对联邦调查局调查的有关他与俄罗斯关系的毫无根据的指控。
“特朗普总统的目标很明确。他希望律师和律师事务所屈服和畏缩，直到没有人在法庭上反对他的政府，”埃利亚斯在一份书面声明中说。 “我们不会与白宫就我们所代表的客户或我们代表他们提起的诉讼进行任何谈判。”
本文最初发表于《纽约时报》。
题图：周五，特朗普总统在华盛顿特区白宫对记者发表讲话。BRYAN DOZIER/中东图片/法新社通过盖蒂图片社
附原英文报道：
With new decree, Trump seeks to cow the legal profession
By Devlin Barrett New York Times,Updated March 23, 2025
President Trump spoke to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday.BRYAN DOZIER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
WASHINGTON — President Trump broadened his campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes with a new memorandum that threatens to use government power to punish any law firms that, in his view, unfairly challenge his administration.
The memorandum directs the heads of the Justice and Homeland Security departments to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States” or in matters that come before federal agencies.
Trump issued the order late Friday night, after a tumultuous week for the American legal community in which one of the country’s premier firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, struck a deal with the White House to spare the company from a punitive decree issued by Trump the previous week.
Vanita Gupta, who as a civil rights lawyer and a former Justice Department official has both sued the government and defended it in court, said Trump’s memo “attacks the very foundations of our legal system by threatening and intimidating litigants who aim to hold our government accountable to the law and the Constitution.”
The president has long complained that Democratic-leaning lawyers and law firms have pursued what he calls “lawfare” in the form of investigations and lawsuits against him and his allies that he claims are motivated by politics. Since being sworn into office, he has targeted three firms, but the new memo seems to threaten similar punishment for any firm that raises his ire or any lawyer who does.
Trump’s memo argues that the steps are necessary to ensure “accountability” in the legal profession.
After Trump issued an order suspending security clearances for Paul Weiss lawyers and sharply limiting their employees from entering government buildings or getting government jobs, the firm agreed to a series of commitments to get the president to cancel the order.
As part of the deal, the firm said it would provide $40 million in legal services to causes Trump has championed, including his task force to combat antisemitism.
Perkins Coie, another firm targeted by Trump, chose a different tack — suing him in federal court and getting a temporary restraining order against the president.
Trump’s attacks on law firms, and Paul Weiss’s decision to sue for peace rather than fight it out in court, have sent shock waves through the legal community. The sweeping nature of Trump’s latest demand comes as he has also stepped up his public attacks on judges and the notion that the courts can tell him what to do or not do.
The executive branch “should neither fear nor punish those who challenge it and should not be the arbiter of what is frivolous. There are protections in place to address that,” Gupta said. “This moment calls for courage and collective action, not capitulation, among lawyers and the legal profession.”
It also comes amid a showdown between a federal judge in Washington and the administration over Trump’s invocation a week ago of the Alien Enemies Act, which he used to immediately send more than 100 Venezuelan migrants he said were gang members to a large prison complex in El Salvador.
Civil rights activists say the deportations violated the law and that the administration’s refusal to give clear answers on its conduct flouts the very premise of the US court system.
One law firm that is suing the administration over its policies said it would not back down in the face of threats from the White House.
The leaders of Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a San Francisco firm that has sued the Trump administration over its immigration raids, called Trump’s latest memo “inexcusable and despicable.”
“Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the federal government,” the firm said in a statement. “Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation or ability to pay.”
The firm also encouraged other lawyers to join a nationwide effort to submit a “friend of the court” brief in the Perkins Coie lawsuit against Trump.
Trump’s Friday night memo, titled “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court,” complains that lawyers have long engaged in unethical conduct in opposing him or deportations. The memo also suggests that the Trump administration will make disciplinary referrals against lawyers who pursue cases without merit, “particularly in cases that implicate national security, homeland security, public safety or election integrity.”
Trump also used the announcement to attack one particular lawyer by name, Marc Elias.
Elias previously worked at Perkins Coie and has long represented Democrats. Trump blames Elias, among others, for a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations about his links to Russia that was investigated by the FBI in 2016 and 2017.
“President Trump’s goal is clear. He wants lawyers and law firms to capitulate and cower until there is no one left to oppose his administration in court,” Elias said in a written statement. “There will be no negotiation with this White House about the clients we represent or the lawsuits we bring on their behalf.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
