On April 3, 2026, CPR and a diverse group of Amici filed a friend of the court brief renewing their support for Perkins Coie and other private law firms who were directly targeted by the Administration’s 2025 Executive Orders. These firms successfully challenged efforts to revoke their security clearances and related directives to Government agencies and contractors to terminate existing federal contracts and refrain from hiring firm employees. The Administration has appealed those decisions in a consolidated action currently before the D.C. Circuit Court.
CPR and fellow Amici underscore the important First Amendment rights of freedom of expression and association at issue in these cases and urge the Court of Appeals not to credit allegations that these firms are a threat to national security. Amici point to litigation surrounding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as a cautionary lesson about judicial deference to unsubstantiated claims of national security threats. Finally, Amici describe in detail the important pro-bono work done by firms like Perkins Coie, including cases which brought to light serious legal violations being perpetrated against detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison.