A former Texas lawyer, who supported in favor of abortion restrictions. Two former officials of Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court. And a lump sum of Trump organization.
These are some of the Harvard Heavy Law Conservative Large Large University, he has hired to win a trial against the Trump administration.
The A-List of democratic aligned lawyers is a divergence since the last time Harvard faced a legal struggle. Then, in 2022, Harvard defended the affirmative action and turned to a business connected to Wilmerhale University.
But Trump’s administration has mixed the legal landscape.
Now Wilmerhale is attacking the administration itself and is fighting for her own battle. And Harvard is facing a fundamental threat after denying a list of administration requirements that included the elimination of teachers “more dedicated to activism from scholarships” and the ban on international students opposed to “American values”.
Unlike the last time, it has billions of dollars in federal funds on the line if it loses.
Legal observers said Harvard is well likely to win the legal advantages. Although the case could deal with headlines if it reaches the Supreme Court, the list of conservative lawyers was designed to give the university a boost in front of a court with the superiority of democratic appointed judges.
“This fits in with a long tradition of customers trying to mark the Supreme Court through the lawyer that they are hiring that this is not Harvard Liberal against a conservative administration,” said Aaron Tang, Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. “This is academic freedom. It should be addressed to someone throughout the political spectrum.”
Lee C. Bollinger, a former president of the University of Michigan, said he had used the same strategy when choosing a lawyer to support a positive action case before the Supreme Court in 2003.
“I understand exactly what Harvard is thinking of using these lawyers,” he said.
The vote of the Supreme Court at that time was Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed by Reagan. Michigan chose as a lawyer Maureen E. Mahoney, who had served as an employee for William H. Rehnquist, a Republican appointed who was in charge of justice when the Supreme Court heard the case.
“I knew that Sandra Day O’Connor was likely to be the critical vote and I wanted someone who would really understand how she thought and how she could think about this case,” said Bollinger, who then became president of the Columbia University.
The strategy worked. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Michigan.
Harvard did not comment on this article. Her case against the government argues that Trump’s administration’s orders violate the first amendment in various ways. University arguments are also based on a more toxic law, the administrative law law, which leads the process for federal services to develop rules and impose sanctions. The university said the government has ignored its own demands to reduce federal funds.
Justin Driver, a professor at the Yale Law School, who was underlined for Justice O’Connor, said the Harvard Lawyers’ list “emphasizes how deeply the right has broken during this full time in the history of our nation.”
And for the lawyers involved, Harvard’s Ascension as a customer carries some dangers. One of the lawyers, William A. Burck, informed Trump until recently, when Mr Trump moved to shoot him because he had agreed to represent Harvard.
Seventeen lawyers have officially registered for the Harvard team and probably others work behind the scenes.
Not everyone is known to be aligned with conservative causes. Joshua S. Levy, for example, was the US lawyer in Boston for part of the presidency of Joseph R. Biden Jr. He is now a partner at The Firm Ropes & Gray. (Harvard is still working with Wilmerhale on other issues.)
But Mr. Burck, a partner of the company Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, is a graduate of Yale Law who employee of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Reagan appointment who left 2018. Partizan warrior.
At least seven other lawyers in the group have been residual for the judges of the Supreme Court appointed by Republicans, including four judges, before or during their term in Washington.
In addition to Mr Burck’s company, at least three other businesses work in the case of Harvard, including Lehotsky Keller Cohn. Steven P. Lehotsky, a graduate of Harvard’s Law, who worked for former Judge Antonin Scalia, worked at the Legal Advisers Office of the Department of Justice during Mr Bush’s administration and played a central role in building a legal team. private conversations.
Mr Lehotsky, who was among the lawyers who appeared on behalf of Harvard in court on Monday for a conference in the case, did not respond to emails.
One of Mr Lehotsky’s associates, Scott Keller, is a former Attorney General for the state of Texas, who defended the cruel restrictions of the state in clinical abortion and seeing Republican Senator TED Cruz as a mentor. Another, Jonathan F. Cohn, a graduate of Harvard’s law, a Thomas justice employee.
Harvard’s team also includes Robert K. Hur, a partner at King & Spalding. Mr Hur, who an employee of the leader of Justice Rehnquist, is perhaps the best known for Mr Biden’s investigation into a case of graded documents.
Mr Hur, who was a US lawyer in Maryland for much of Mr Trump’s first term, concluded that there were insufficient reasons for prosecution, but nevertheless a fire began referring to Mr Biden as a “elderly man”.
Harvard’s strategy was successful before, but it also has risks.
“You have to be very careful,” Mr Bollinger said. “If the people you support feel like trying to manipulate them with the kind of lawyer you have, who can turn them against you.”
