Executive Order 14263 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Addressing Risks From Susman Godfrey
Signed: 2025-04-09 Published: 2025-04-15 Federal Register document: 2025-06458
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 14263 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 15, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 15, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 15615-15617] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-06458] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 71 / Tuesday, April 15, 2025 / Presidential Documents ___________________________________________________________________ Title 3-- The President [[Page 15615]] Executive Order 14263 of April 9, 2025 Addressing Risks From Susman Godfrey 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. Lawyers and law firms that engage in activities detrimental to critical American interests should not have access to our Nation's secrets, nor should their conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts. My Administration must also take appropriate and necessary measures to guard against the actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that arise when the Government funds, engages with, or otherwise devotes resources to law firms and their clients that engage in conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities. I have determined that action is necessary to address the significant risks, egregious conduct, and conflicts of...
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 finds the President has general Article II authority over clearances and procurement, but EO 14263 uses that power to punish a named firm for protected advocacy and association through clearance suspension, contract termination and blacklisting, and exclusion from federal access and hiring without notice or hearing. That is First Amendment retaliation, denial of Fifth Amendment due process, and attainder-like punishment, warranting grade F.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
The President has authority under Article II, Section 1 vesting executive power, Article II, Section 2 as Commander in Chief and for national security information, and Article II, Section 3 to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, including supervision of agencies, security clearances, federal property, and procurement. Directing review of clearances and contracts for national-interest c… -
✗ Concern · Bill of Rights
The order penalizes a named private law firm for its litigation, election-related advocacy, association, and diversity policies. Under the First Amendment, speech, petition for redress, association, and advocacy in courts and elections are protected, and government may not retaliate or impose viewpoint-based disabilities for protected expression. Sections 2, 3 and 5 impose suspension of clearances… -
✗ Concern · Individual sovereignty
The order restricts what private persons may do with their own speech, labor, association, and property: lawyers and staff face loss of clearances, federal access, and employability; contractors must disclose and risk termination for doing lawful business with the firm; agencies are told to avoid engagement and hiring. Under the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment liberty principles, the burden is… -
✗ Concern · Decentralization
Security clearances and federal procurement are inherently federal functions that states and localities cannot handle, so questions 2 and 3 properly remain federal. However the order fails minimum-necessary-level principles: individuals and private businesses can choose counsel and business partners without federal involvement, and the order consolidates decision-making upward by conditioning fede… -
✗ Concern · Due process and takings
The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and bars taking property without just compensation. The order directs immediate suspension of active clearances, cessation of services and facilities, termination of contracts, and employment blacklisting of named persons, based on broad findings of detrimental conduct, unlawful …
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