Executive Order 14246 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Addressing Risks From Jenner & Block
Signed: 2025-03-25 Published: 2025-03-28 Federal Register document: 2025-05519
Agencies: Executive Office of the President
Federal Register notes (as of 2026-10-19): See: EO 14147, January 20, 2025; EO 14230, March 6, 2025
What Executive Order 14246 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 59 (Friday, March 28, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 59 (Friday, March 28, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 13997-13999] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-05519] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 59 / Friday, March 28, 2025 / Presidential Documents ___________________________________________________________________ Title 3-- The President [[Page 13997]] Executive Order 14246 of March 25, 2025 Addressing Risks From Jenner & Block By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Background. My Administration is committed to addressing the significant risks associated with law firms, particularly so-called ``Big Law'' firms, that engage in conduct detrimental to critical American interests. Many firms take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, or undermine bedrock American principles. Moreover, law firms regularly conduct this harmful activity through their powerful pro bono practices, earmarking hundreds of millions of their clients' dollars for destructive causes, that often directly or indirectly harm their own clients. Lawyers and law firms that engage in...
Opening of the official text; read it in full in the Federal Register.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Fails constitutional review
Graded 2026-10-08
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
SI grades Executive Order 14246 as F. While the President has Article II authority over clearances and procurement, the order uses that power to punish a named law firm for protected speech, association, and legal advocacy, with blacklists, contract termination, and access bans without notice or hearing. That is retaliation and arbitrary action barred by the First and Fifth Amendments.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
Article II, Sections 1-3 vests the President with executive power, Commander in Chief authority, and the duty to take care that laws be faithfully executed, which includes authority to manage security clearances, federal property, federal workforce access, and to supervise procurement consistent with statute and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The order claims that authority and includes to-th… -
✗ Concern · Bill of Rights
First Amendment: order imposes adverse government action - clearance suspension, contract termination, building access and hiring blacklists - expressly because of Jenner's pro bono representations, political advocacy, and association with disfavored lawyers including Andrew Weissmann. Supreme Court retaliation doctrine prohibits punishing protected speech, petition and association. It also burden… -
✗ Concern · Individual sovereignty
Order restricts speech, belief, association, labor and pursuit of profession: Jenner personnel face clearance review, federal hiring blacklist absent waiver, and restricted access to federal buildings and officials because of the firm's clients, causes, and viewpoints. Government contractors must disclose and risk losing business for associating with Jenner. The burden is on the government to just… -
✓ Passes · Decentralization
Security clearances, federal facilities, and federal procurement are inherently federal functions under Article II executive power that individuals, counties, and states cannot handle. The order does not transfer state or local authority to the federal government and does not violate the Tenth Amendment on federalism grounds. The defect is retaliatory targeting, not vertical consolidation. -
✗ Concern · Due process and takings
Fifth Amendment Due Process: clearances suspended, contracts terminated, and property/services and building access withdrawn as punishment for viewpoint without fair notice of a specific legal violation, individualized findings, or a fair hearing and opportunity to contest. Action is also arbitrary and pretextual on its face, linking sanctions to protected advocacy. Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 …
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