The president has signed an executive order targeting the law firm Jenner and Block because it is involved in a court case challenging his executive order banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The law firm denounced the order, but it’s just the latest example of the president persecuting legal firms that oppose his illegal actions.

“Jenner engages in obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends [and] supports attacks against women and children based on a refusal to accept the biological reality of [gender],” the president wrote in his order, which he signed Tuesday. He also criticized the law firm for opposing the administration’s attempts to conduct mass extra-judicial deportations of immigrants, for trying to hire a diverse workforce, and for working with special prosecutor Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russia’s support of the president’s 2016 election campaign.

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Jenner and Block are working on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to block the president’s ban on gender-affirming care. The ban prohibits the federal government from funding, promoting, or supporting gender-affirming care for people under age 19 in any way. This included cutting-off funds — pre-approved by Congress — for any medical schools or institutions that research, provide, or teach about gender-affirming care.

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The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the gender-affirming care ban. The lawsuit accused the president of trying to “unconstitutionally usurp congressional authority by withholding lawfully appropriated federal funds.” The lawsuit also said that the president sought to violate the rights of trans youth by “depriving them of necessary medical care” solely on the basis of their gender assigned at birth and their transgender status, PBS reported.

Gender-affirming care is endorsed by almost all major U.S. medical associations as safe, effective and essential to trans kids’ well-being.

The order targeting Jenner and Block directs government agencies to revoke any security clearances held by the firm’s attorneys and to end all federal material support to the firm. It also requires all government contractors to alert the administration if they plan on working with the law firm, and directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide a list of all entities that do business with the firm.

In a statement responding to the order, a Jenner and Block spokesperson said, “Today, we have been named in an Executive Order similar to one which has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. We remain focused on serving and safeguarding our clients’ interests with the dedication, integrity, and expertise that has defined our firm for more than one hundred years and will pursue all appropriate remedies.”

The president has issued similar orders against law firms who have helped prosecute him for his past illegal dealings.

He issued a similar order against Covington & Burling, which provided pro bono services to Jack Smith, the former special counsel who oversaw two cases involving the president’s mishandling of classified documents and his incitement of the January 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol.

He also issued a similar order against the law firm Perkins Coie, which conducted political opposition research during his first presidential campaign, The Hill reported. Part of that order, which forbade the firm’s attorneys from entering government buildings, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

The president also issued a similar order against the Paul Weiss law firm, but he withdrew the order after the law firm pledged to provide $40 million in pro bono work to his administration. The firm was widely criticized for buckling to the president’s pressure rather than standing up for their own legal rights.

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