Susman Godfrey is getting a little help from their friends in the academic community.
In an amicus brief filed late Wednesday in Susman Godfrey’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump, 775 law professors — including 27 from Texas law schools — asked a federal judge to rule in favor of the Houston-based litigation firm to help protect “the independence and integrity of the legal profession [and] the rights of clients to seek redress in the courts.”
Susman Godfrey sued the Trump administration last week after President Trump signed an executive that accused the law firm of “spearheading efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrading the quality of American elections” and “undermining the effectiveness of the United States military.”
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order April 15 prohibiting the Trump administration from enforcing key provisions of the executive order. The firm filed motion to dismiss documents Wednesday asking the judge to issue permanent injunctive relief that puts a stop to the president’s “unprecedented abuse of the powers of his office.”
Eight law professors from the University of Houston Law Center, eight professors from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, seven professors from the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law and two law professors from both the South Texas College of Law Houston and the University of Texas School of Law signed the 19-page friend-of-the-court brief.
“The President’s Order is a self-declared act of retribution that targets a law firm for representing clients and causes the President disfavors,” the brief argues. “In inflicting this retribution, the Order contradicts centuries of precedent safeguarding free speech, the right of association and the right to petition. These precedents establish that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from ‘relying on the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion … to achieve the suppression’ of disfavored speech.”
“Targeting Susman Godfrey for representing clients and espousing views the President dislikes is viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple,” the brief states. “Forcing lawyers to bend to the preferences of federal officials robs clients of their right to counsel and introduces the very type of government interference in the administration of justice the Founders acted to prevent.”
The amicus brief argues that “it will be open season on lawyers who have dared to take on clients or causes the President or other officials don’t like.”
“This is no hypothetical threat. In the run-up to the election, the President posted on Truth Social that ‘WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. … Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers.’”
The Texas law professors who signed the amicus brief include:
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LAW CENTER
Emily Berman, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law
Andrew Lanham, Assistant Professor of Law
Darren Bush, Leonard B. Rosenberg Professor of Law
Daniel Morales, Associate Professor of Law, Dwight Olds Chair in Law
David R. Dow, Cullen Professor of Law
Meredith Duncan, Alumnae College Professor of Law
Elizabeth Trujillo, Professor of Law
J. Anna Cabot, Assistant Dean of Clinical Programs and Clinical Associate Professor of Law
UNT DALLAS COLLEGE OF LAW
Cheryl Brown Wattley, Professor
Natalie Brandt, Assistant Professor of Law
Aryele N. Maye, Professor of Practice
Brian L. Owsley, Associate Professor of Law
Desiree C. Slaybaugh, Assistant Professor of Law
Allison Van Stean, Professor of Practice
Meijken Westenskow, Senior Professor of Practice
SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW
Dale Carpenter, Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law
Nathan Cortez, Callejo Endowed Professor
Grant M. Hayden, Richard R. Lee Jr. Endowed Professor of Law
Joanna L. Grossman, Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and Law and Professor of Law
Jeffrey Kahn, University Distinguished Professor of Law
Thomas S. Leatherbury, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the First Amendment Clinic
Thomas Wm. Mayo, Professor of Law
Eric Ruben, Associate Professor of Law
SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE OF LAW HOUSTON
Sharon Finegan, Professor of Law
Ryan H. Nelson, Associate Professor of Law
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW
Lucas A. Powe, Jr., Anne Green Regents Chair
Jay L. Westbrook, Professor and Benno C. Schmidt Chair of Business Law
The brief was authored by Stanford University law professor Phillip Malone.
The case is Susman Godfrey v. The Executive Office of the President. U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C. Case No. 1:25—cv—01107.