Matthew Stiegler

Exclusive | Trump Administration to Drop Defense of Law Firm Sanctions The Justice Dept. plans to abandon its defense of the president’s executive orders that targeted Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey.

If you are a client of a firm that folded in this fight, you should know that not only were they morally wrong, but they were also strategically dumb www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

bsky.app/profile/matt...

From the perspective of a year later, there have been countless nasty shocks since then. But, for me, that first surrender by Paul Weiss remains the nastiest shock of them all. Staggering. Tectonic.

And I heartily share Chris's appreciation for the firms that stood up.

Donald Trump wants to, and is working to, destroy the rule of law Attn, BigLaw: There will be no law firm business to save if Trump succeeds. Also: DOJ is planning Second Amendment litigation. And, for paid subscribers: Closing my tabs.

And, all the way back last March, I wrote about the capitulation of Paul Weiss and how it was “dangerous for the rule of law and the nation.”

Thankfully, others — Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey — did fight back.

Biglaw Is Under Attack. Here's What The Firms Are Doing About It. - Above the Law Introducing the Biglaw Spine Index.

Forgot which law firms surrendered? Here, lemme help you.

abovethelaw.com/2025/04/bigl...

Every reporter in America should ask Kirkland & Ellis and all the other surrender firms for their reaction, and keep asking.

He's obviously trying to win cases.

eh, i mean the final sentence here is true but imo inapposite. respectfully, the problem here isn’t the wurman is playing historian in good faith but doing it badly, the problem is he’s acting in bad faith to produce regime-friendly propaganda. originalism is just a tool for that, not the motivator

And
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Yeah, I agree. I didn't mean to suggest to the contrary. My point was that originalism will reliably generate these bad-faith actors, so the problem goes deeper than one actor's bad faith. I said that more clearly down-thread.
bsky.app/profile/matt...

Former DOJ prosecutor, Sam Trepel, lays out the danger of DOJ not investigating the violent tactics by federal agents across the country, not just in Minneapolis.

DOJ is sending the message that federal agents are above the law.
justiceconnection.substack.com/p/by-refusin...

"motivated dilettantism" is the most brutal and accurate description of this phenomenon I have ever heard. A person of integrity would wither at the possibility that phrase might apply to them

When the man who holds the country’s highest office expresses contempt for the Americans who didn’t put him there, what does that reveal?

Order – #66 in A. (W.D. Pa., 2:25-mc-01069) – CourtListener.com ORDER. The terms of the Order dated 12/24/2025 (Doc. [52]) are reaffirmed, there will be no anonymized production, and a Rule 58 Judgment will issue. Signed by Chief Judge Cathy Bissoon on 3/2/2026. (...

"The DOJ’s actions in this area are unprecedented,
to say the least. Reliance on historical norms, standards and, frankly, decency, cannot be seen as given."
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71443...

My comment is agnostic as to the degree to which that reputation was deserved. I'm simply saying they had it, and they did.

NEW: A federal appeals court swiftly rejected the Trump administration’s request to delay next steps in the fight over tariff refunds for importers after the US Supreme Court struck down the president’s signature economic policy
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Over generations, DOJ built a reputation as the gold standard.

In one year, they burnt it to the ground.

Or long-term national survival, even.

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson — Next Projects

The motherfucking cavalry is coming
www.heatherannthompson.com/next-projects

Black people didn't have a say then, but they have a say now. Women didn't have a say then, but they have a say now.

A constitutional theory that relies on our all pretending that doesn't matter is not a recipe for healthy governance.

Bet I stole it from someone here.

And the inherent vulnerability to hackery is BY NO MEANS the worst of originalism's myriad fatal flaws.

That prize goes to its core demand that we answer every constitutional question today by asking only how long-past political cultures consisting >/< exclusively of white men would have answered.

I take it all back, originalism rocks

bsky.app/profile/obar...

A terrific point. I don't suspect the current majority would let that get terribly far, though, so I'd predict that "at some point" won't come right away.

Federal Judge John Coughenour says he’s received dozens, if not hundreds, of death threats after he ruled against the Trump administration. cbsn.ws/3N73lPr

A point that I've seen Kreis and others make here seems right to me. Motivated dilettantism is the least legitimate flavor of originalism. The more you rely on history, the more you need actual scholars with actual expertise in the relevant subject matter, not just some smart guy who went looking.

And, veering now into a hobby horse of mine, I'd further say that functions to seize judicial power from the lower courts to Scotus.

Sure, but it's the war on drugs, and Wurman is just the corner dealer. If he weren't standing there, the next one would be.

I suspect so too. And I'd say that the impracticality of doing originalist analysis reliably when you're a judge who doesn't have the luxury of deciding only a couple dozen cases a year and with a gazillion amicus briefs at hand is, to me, another of the fatal flaws.

The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie: 9780593729250 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A rallying cry for a more just approach to the law that bolsters social justice movements by throwing out originalism—the theory that judges should interpret the Constitution exactly as conservatives....

Here is where I confess that I'd rather get a root canal than read a book about originalism, even a wonderful one. So I suspect, but don't actually know, that you can find a vastly better argument against originalism by @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app here:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735353...