ACDL-NJ Statement on the
March 22, 2025 Presidential Memorandum
Attacking the Legal Profession
March 26, 2025 — The Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ) stands with fellow lawyers and legal associations across the country in condemning the March 22, 2025 Presidential Memorandum (“Memo”) directing punitive actions against lawyers and law firms for engaging in litigation that challenges the federal government.
Last week, on March 17, we said: “We will not stand silent while elected officials attempt to bully the judiciary and our professional colleagues into submission. And we will not allow the rule of law to become collateral damage in the pursuit of political retribution. The ACDL-NJ was established more than 40 years ago to defend against just such conduct: government officials abusing their power to punish attorneys as a way to exact retribution against the attorneys' clients, and to obstruct the attorneys from doing their jobs.”
Five days later, the federal government trained its fire even more directly on the criminal defense and immigration lawyers who comprise the ACDL-NJ. The Memo makes explicit that lawyers representing clients in actions that “implicate national security, homeland security, [or] public safety” are at risk. That targets our members, who have devoted their careers to protecting individuals and companies against government violations of their Constitutional rights. Lawyers who represent immigrants, protesters, whistleblowers, or criminal defendants in cases that draw the ire of the government may find themselves blacklisted. And the Memo purports to arrogate to the government the sole discretion to recast zealous advocacy as “abuses of the legal system.”
Indeed, the Memo is especially alarming for criminal defense lawyers, because it misrepresents ethical standards in a way that directly threatens core constitutional advocacy. The very Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.1 that the Memo selectively quotes (like New Jersey’s RPC 3.1) states plainly: “A lawyer for the defendant in a criminal proceeding may nevertheless so defend the proceeding as to require that every element of the case be established.” Comment [3] to the ABA Model Rule underscores that a “lawyer's obligations under this Rule are subordinate to federal or state constitutional law that entitles a defendant in a criminal matter to the assistance of counsel in presenting a claim or contention that otherwise would be prohibited by this Rule.” Thus, what the Memo brands as “frivolous” is often not only ethical but constitutionally required.
Equally alarming, the Order threatens to punish lawyers for conduct the government unilaterally deems “unreasonable” by directing the “termination of any Federal contract for which the relevant attorney or law firm has been hired to perform services.” It is unclear how broadly this provision will be applied—but given the sweeping and punitive nature of the Order itself, there is a real risk that the government could attempt to stretch its reach to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), who represent indigent defendants in federal court. If so, the administration is not merely punishing disfavored firms—it is threatening the right to counsel itself.
This ongoing, calculated attack on the legal profession and the adversarial system itself cannot stand. This is not a political issue. It is a constitutional one, a threat to the foundations of our democracy. We urge all attorneys, regardless of ideology or affiliation, to oppose this threat.
The ACDL-NJ will not be silent, and we will not be intimidated. Instead, the ACDL-NJ will continue to do what it was formed to do: defend those who defend others.
