Law Firm Susman Godfrey Files Suit Over Trump Executive Order — Hires Usha Vance’s Old Firm to Represent
Texas-based law firm Susman Godfrey, which among other clients has represented Dominion Voting Machines and The New York Times, has filed suit over the latest executive order targeting law firms issued by President Donald Trump, and ironically has retained Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance’s former law firm to represent them.
Trump’s executive orders directed at law firms his administration accuses of “conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities” among other things have resulted in battle lines being drawn, with some caving to the pressure and others, such as Susman Godfrey, going to court against the administration.
The lawsuit was filed (PDF) on on behalf of Susman Godfrey Friday by the firm Munger, Tolles & Olson — which is the Big Law firm Usha Vance left after her husband was named as Donald Trump’s running mate.
The statement from Susman Godfrey names Trump’s executive orders against law firms “a grave threat” to a “foundational premise” of the United States:
In America we have, in the words of John Adams, a government of laws and not men. President Trump’s campaign of Executive Orders against law firms and others, including the Executive Order he signed on April 9, 2025 against Susman Godfrey, is a grave threat to this foundational premise of our Republic. The President is abusing the powers of his office to wield the might of the Executive Branch in retaliation against organizations and people that he dislikes. Nothing in our Constitution or laws grants a President such power; to the contrary, the specific provisions and overall design of our Constitution were adopted in large measure to ensure that presidents cannot exercise arbitrary, absolute power in the way that the President seeks to do in these Executive Orders.
“Unless the Judiciary acts with resolve —now — to repudiate this blatantly unconstitutional Executive Order and the others like it, a dangerous and perhaps irreversible precedent will be set,” it read. “Whatever opinions one may hold about President Trump, or about Susman Godfrey’s litigation on behalf of its clients, someday a different president with an entirely different set of policy priorities and personal grievances will sit behind the Resolute Desk.”
Repped by Usha Vance’s old firm 👀 https://t.co/RtTY0z6PPU
— Daniel Barnes (@dnlbrns) April 11, 2025
“If President Trump’s Executive Orders are allowed to stand, future presidents will face no constraint when they seek to retaliate against a different set of perceived foes,” the firm writes. “What for two centuries has been beyond the pale will become the new normal.”
The suit alleges Trump’s executive order violates the First and Fifth Amendments as well as the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.
