The Justice Department on Wednesday barred its lawyers from attending any American Bar Association events, escalating the Trump administration’s battle with the legal profession over who lawyers should take on as clients.
In a memo, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the bar association was “free to litigate in support of activist causes” but that the department’s employees “must conduct themselves in a manner that does not undermine or appear to undermine the department’s core mission of administering justice in a fair, effective, and evenhanded manner.”
The department, Mr. Blanche wrote, “will no longer use taxpayer funds to pay for any travel to or engagement with A.B.A. events.” Any department employees who work in policy-related positions also may not “speak at, attend, or otherwise participate in” the association’s events in their official capacity, the memo continued, adding that those employees may not hold positions in the association or renew their memberships.
Mr. Blanche also barred those employees from writing or publishing material in “A.B.A.-sponsored media” without his specific approval.
Senior Justice Department officials have long attended and had major speaking roles at A.B.A. conferences, which draw lawyers from around the country. The new policy seems intended to put a halt to any senior department lawyers doing so again.
The directive does allow for a category of exceptions: Career Justice Department lawyers who do not serve in policy-related roles may attend such events as long as they do so on their own time and at their own expense.
The move came as President Trump made clear he intended to continue using the levers of government to pursue his perceived foes. He signed executive orders on Wednesday to punish the law firm Susman Godfrey and to revoke security clearances for two officials who had served in his first administration, Christopher Krebs and Miles Taylor, adding to a growing number of people and entities he has targeted.
Mr. Blanche’s memo does not mention Mr. Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at punishing certain firms, or the bar association’s criticism of those and other actions by the president. It instead refers to past “friend of the court” filings that the group has made in cases about abortion, student admissions and the First Amendment.
A spokesman for the association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group’s president, William R. Bay, said in a statement last month that clients “have the right to have access to their lawyer without interference by the government.”
The American Bar Association has over 400,000 members. Its mission, according to its website, is “to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law.”
