{"id":145292,"date":"2026-03-03T12:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/03\/trump-admin-calls-backsies-on-biglaw-executive-order-appeals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:34:15","slug":"trump-admin-calls-backsies-on-biglaw-executive-order-appeals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/03\/trump-admin-calls-backsies-on-biglaw-executive-order-appeals\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin Calls \u2018Backsies\u2019 On Biglaw Executive Order Appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice waved the white flag<\/a> in the Biglaw executive order<\/a> cases, filing a voluntary dismissal request, seeking to quietly slink away from Donald Trump\u2019s constitutionally suspect vendetta against major law firms. It was, by any measure, a remarkable concession. After months of bluster, the administration appeared ready to admit<\/a> what judges across the ideological spectrum<\/a> had already made clear \u2014 the orders weren\u2019t going to survive constitutional muster.<\/p>\n

Cue the record scratch.<\/p>\n

Because by Tuesday morning \u2014 less than 24 hours later \u2014 the Trump administration had apparently decided that conceding defeat is for losers. According to reporting<\/a> from the The New York Times, the administration abruptly reversed course and now plans to renew its defense of the very same executive orders it had just tried to abandon.<\/p>\n

Wake up, babe\u2026 new civ pro doctrine of \u201ctake backsies\u201d just dropped.<\/p>\n

By 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, the same DOJ officials who filed to get out of the case were back with a completely different litigation strategy (if you\u2019re bold enough to call it that). In an email to the four firms fighting the administration<\/a> \u2014 Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey \u2014 a department official reportedly apologized for the short notice and said the government would file a motion to withdraw its own voluntary dismissal. The firms were asked to let DOJ know within a half hour whether they planned to oppose the administration\u2019s attempt to un-ring the bell.<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes seems like a short turn around to make a major litigation decision, but let\u2019s be so fucking for real right now \u2014 the firms needed all of thirty seconds to know what they wanted to do (though nothing official has been filed thus far).<\/p>\n

What exactly *is* the DOJ planning on telling the appellate court? \u201cYour Honors, as the court will recognize, our original filing never said \u2018Simon Says,\u2019 so\u2026.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n

The glaring question of WHY is also up for debate. A White House official reportedly insisted there are ongoing discussions within the White House Counsel\u2019s Office about how to proceed.<\/p>\n

Was Monday\u2019s concession a rogue act of realism inside DOJ? Did someone at the White House see headlines about the administration blinking and decide that simply would not do? Did a certain someone wake up Tuesday morning, scroll social media<\/a>, and decide he did not care for the optics of surrender<\/a>?<\/p>\n

We may never know. But federal appellate litigation is not supposed to operate like a group chat where someone says \u201cnvm\u201d five minutes later.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> DOJ Drops Defense Of Biglaw Executive Orders, Leaving Capitulating Firms Holding $940 Million Bag<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Trump Admin Calls \u2018Backsies\u2019 On Biglaw Executive Order Appeals<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t (Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice waved the white flag<\/a> in the Biglaw executive order<\/a> cases, filing a voluntary dismissal request, seeking to quietly slink away from Donald Trump\u2019s constitutionally suspect vendetta against major law firms. It was, by any measure, a remarkable concession. After months of bluster, the administration appeared ready to admit<\/a> what judges across the ideological spectrum<\/a> had already made clear \u2014 the orders weren\u2019t going to survive constitutional muster.<\/p>\n

Cue the record scratch.<\/p>\n

Because by Tuesday morning \u2014 less than 24 hours later \u2014 the Trump administration had apparently decided that conceding defeat is for losers. According to reporting<\/a> from the The New York Times, the administration abruptly reversed course and now plans to renew its defense of the very same executive orders it had just tried to abandon.<\/p>\n

Wake up, babe\u2026 new civ pro doctrine of \u201ctake backsies\u201d just dropped.<\/p>\n

By 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, the same DOJ officials who filed to get out of the case were back with a completely different litigation strategy (if you\u2019re bold enough to call it that). In an email to the four firms fighting the administration<\/a> \u2014 Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey \u2014 a department official reportedly apologized for the short notice and said the government would file a motion to withdraw its own voluntary dismissal. The firms were asked to let DOJ know within a half hour whether they planned to oppose the administration\u2019s attempt to un-ring the bell.<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes seems like a short turn around to make a major litigation decision, but let\u2019s be so fucking for real right now \u2014 the firms needed all of thirty seconds to know what they wanted to do (though nothing official has been filed thus far).<\/p>\n

What exactly *is* the DOJ planning on telling the appellate court? \u201cYour Honors, as the court will recognize, our original filing never said \u2018Simon Says,\u2019 so\u2026.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n

The glaring question of WHY is also up for debate. A White House official reportedly insisted there are ongoing discussions within the White House Counsel\u2019s Office about how to proceed.<\/p>\n

Was Monday\u2019s concession a rogue act of realism inside DOJ? Did someone at the White House see headlines about the administration blinking and decide that simply would not do? Did a certain someone wake up Tuesday morning, scroll social media<\/a>, and decide he did not care for the optics of surrender<\/a>?<\/p>\n

We may never know. But federal appellate litigation is not supposed to operate like a group chat where someone says \u201cnvm\u201d five minutes later.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> DOJ Drops Defense Of Biglaw Executive Orders, Leaving Capitulating Firms Holding $940 Million Bag<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice waved the white flag in the Biglaw executive order cases, filing a voluntary dismissal request, seeking to quietly slink away from Donald Trump\u2019s constitutionally suspect vendetta against major law firms. It was, by any measure, a remarkable concession. After months of bluster, the administration appeared ready to admit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-KmVYJt.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}