A federal judge in Washington has ruled against President Trump’s attempt to cancel a security clearance for an attorney who represents whistleblowers — specifically, government employees critical of Mr. Trump.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali last week rejected the government’s claim that the executive branch retains sole authority over issuing security clearances in the case of attorney Mark Zaid, who has been in the whistleblower practice for more than three decades.
Judge Ali, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction ordering the government to restore Mr. Zaid’s security clearance — but the order won’t go into effect until Jan. 13 to give the government time to appeal.
“The Constitution forbids government officials from using their power to retaliate against people for their speech, and that is so even when the speech is critical of the government,” the judge wrote in his Dec. 23 order. “This court joins the several others in this district that have enjoined the government from using the summary revocation of security clearances to penalize lawyers for representing people adverse to it.”
Mr. Trump issued in March an order that did away with security clearances for Mr. Zaid and more than a dozen other individuals, saying it was not in the nation’s security interest for them to retain the access. The president later went on to deny former national security and government officials the same access, as well as certain law firms.
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