Another weaponized Trump EO struck down

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NPR:

A federal judge on Friday struck down President Trump's executive order targeting the prominent law firm of Perkins Coie, finding it unconstitutional and declaring it an attack on the foundational principles of the American legal system.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell is the first to permanently block an executive order issued by Trump punishing a law firm for representing clients or causes that he dislikes.

"No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies," Howell wrote in her 102-page ruling.

No surprise, but it’s starting to look more and more like the ~ 0-60 loss record in court Trump had after the failed 2020 election. It takes awhile, and a lot of money spent on lawyers, but the outcome in these cases is rarely in doubt.

Nobody believes any of this performative EO stuff is legal or constitutional (with the exception of dead-end Trumpies or the uber-conservative wing of the SCOTUS - but I repeat myself).

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Another related item - Remember when Trump tried to publicly bully Maine’s Democratic governor, threatening to cut off Maine’s federal funding if she didn’t follow his diktat on transgender athletes, which Maine currently has a state law protecting?

She replied We will follow the law. Trump said We are the law.

She said We’ll see you in court. He said Maine would lose.

And then he suspended funding?

Guess who folded?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to halt efforts to freeze federal funds for child nutrition programs in Maine. In exchange the state will drop its lawsuit against the agency.

The settlement agreement closes a lawsuit brought by Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey after the USDA yanked $3 million in federal funds in retaliation for a state law allowing transgender athletes to participate on girls' sports teams.

In a statement, Frey said that it's unfortunate that Maine had to sue to get the USDA to comply with the law, but that he's happy the case is resolved. Later in the afternoon during a press conference with Frey, Gov. Janet Mills celebrated the settlement but also took a few rhetorical swipes at President Trump and his administration, saying "we took him to court and we won."

…"The USDA has backed down and they have agreed to stop freezing funds for the school lunch program that feeds 172,000 kids in Maine — freezing without due process, freezing without any rationale, freezing without any congressional basis," Mills said.

"These bullying tactics, we will not tolerate them," Mills, a Democrat and former Maine attorney general, told reporters gathered in her Cabinet room. "Nobody in this country should tolerate them. You don't appease bullies. They never stop."

It’s not entirely over. The Trumpies are still suing the state separately in a perversion of Title 9. And they’re threatening Minnesota, which has a similar law. But Guv Walz is pursuing a preemptive lawsuit to nip that in the bud. And this Maine settlement provides a strong message that Trump doesn’t actually have the cudgel of pulling federal funding at his whim.