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    "text": "The first two pages of Judge Beryl A. Howell's memorandum opinion. \n\nPERKINS COIE LLP,\nPlaintiff,\nv.\nU.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, et al.,\nDefendants.",
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          "alt": "No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this\nlawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch\nagencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who\npenned the phrase: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,\nHENRY VI, PART 2, act 4, sc. 2, l. 75. When Shakespeare’s character, a rebel leader intent on\nbecoming king, see id. l. 74, hears this suggestion, he promptly incorporates this tactic as part of\nhis plan to assume power, leading in the same scene to the rebel leader demanding “[a]way with\nhim,” referring to an educated clerk, who “can make obligations and write court hand,” id. l. 90,\n106. Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the\npath to more power. See Walters v. Nat’l Ass’n of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305, 371 n.24\n(1985) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (explaining the import of the same Shakespearean statement to be\n“that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government”).\nThe importance of independent lawyers to ensuring the American judicial system’s fair\nand impartial administration of justice has been recognized in this country since its founding era.\nIn 1770, John Adams made the singularly unpopular decision to represent eight British soldiers\ncharged with murder for their roles in the Boston Massacre and “claimed later to have suffered the",
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          "alt": "loss of more than half his practice.” DAVID MCCULLOUGH, JOHN ADAMS 68 (2001). “I had no\nhesitation,” he explained, since “Council ought to be the very last thing that an accused Person\nshould want in a free Country,” and “the Bar ought . . . to be independent and impartial at all Times\nAnd in every Circumstance.” 3 DIARY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN ADAMS 293 (L.H.\nButterfield et al. eds., 1961). When the Bill of Rights was ratified, these principles were codified\ninto the Constitution: The Sixth Amendment secured the right, in “all criminal prosecutions,” to\n“have the Assistance of Counsel for . . . defence,” U.S. CONST. amend. VI, and the Fifth\nAmendment protected “the right to the aid of counsel when desired and provided by the party\nasserting the right,” Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 68 (1932).1 This value placed on the role of\nlawyers caught the attention of Alexis de Tocqueville, who in reflecting on his travels throughout\nthe early United States in 1831 and 1832, insightfully remarked that “the authority . . . intrusted to\nmembers of the legal profession . . . is the most powerful existing security against the excesses of\ndemocracy.” ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 301 (Henry Reeve trans., 2002)\n(1835).",
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    "langs": [
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    "createdAt": "2025-05-08T14:32:25.500Z"
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}