Attorney General Tong Joins Open Letter to Legal Community Regarding Law Firm Capitulations to Trump’s Unconstitutional Threats Against Lawyers

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04/30/2025

Attorney General Tong Joins Open Letter to Legal Community Regarding Law Firm Capitulations to Trump’s Unconstitutional Threats Against Lawyers

Letter Calls on Law Firms to Uphold Core Constitutional Principles in the Face of the Trump Administration’s Attacks

(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong joined an open letter to the legal community that expresses support for law firms that have fought back against President Trump’s unconstitutional attempts to target law firms for advocacy the Trump Administration disfavors, and that expresses the coalition’s profound disappointment that several of the country’s largest law firms have capitulated in the face of these dangerous attacks on the rule of law.

The open letter to the legal community comes as President Trump has issued unconstitutional executive orders targeting several law firms for their advocacy, and as some of the nation’s largest law firms have struck “deals” with the President and his Administration that commit the firms to provide free legal services to support the Trump Administration’s priorities.

“Donald Trump’s attempts to bully the legal profession into silence and submission leave no choice but to fight back. He relentlessly targets attorneys to exact political revenge on those who defended the integrity of our elections. He arrests and perp-walks a sitting judge on the thinnest of charges. He mocks and defies court orders. These are foundational attacks on not just our legal profession—but on the rule of law itself. I do not minimize for one second just how hard this is, but we must never surrender, never quit and never back down,” said Attorney General Tong.

In the letter, the coalition of attorneys general explains that President Trump’s executive orders plainly violate the Constitution. The executive orders retaliate against lawyers based on protected speech and association, and they discriminate based on viewpoint. The orders also are inconsistent with the right to effective counsel, offend basic principles of due process, and undermine bedrock rule-of-law principles. The letter points out that these unconstitutional attacks on the legal profession are an attack on our justice system and pave the way towards authoritarianism.

In the letter, the coalition highlights that four law firms – Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey – have filed suit against the Trump Administration for the President’s illegal actions and have succeeded in obtaining court orders temporarily blocking these orders.

The letter calls upon other law firms and lawyers to join the four law firms who have fought back against these unconstitutional executive orders, along with their counsel, current and former General Counsel of leading companies, former judges, law professors, and the more than 800 other law firms that have joined amicus briefs in those cases. The letter urges other law firms and lawyers to reject the path taken by the firms that have capitulated to President Trump, and it invites law firms to stand together with the coalition of attorneys general in preserving the integrity of our legal system.

The Attorneys General of New Jersey, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia signed the letter.

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