Trump’s Perkins Coie order is ‘not designed to punish’: DOJ

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The Justice Department argued to a judge at a hearing on Wednesday that she should dismiss a lawsuit brought by Perkins Coie, a prominent Democratic-aligned law firm, over allegations that President Donald Trump unconstitutionally revoked its employees’ security clearances and attempted to curb its lucrative work with government contractors.

Richard Lawson, a deputy associate attorney general, told Judge Beryl Howell that the heart of the dispute between Perkins Coie and the Trump administration was whether the president’s order was issued under “executive discretion” or whether it was a constitutional violation intended to punish lawyers for their viewpoints.

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