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It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning again, everyone.

We'll return now to the issue of the rule of law, this time as it pertains to lawyers themselves.

And if lawyers seem less sympathetic maybe as a group or more insulated from the worst authoritarian power grabs that matter to your life or other people's

lives, like some we were talking about in our first hour. Many democracy experts beg to differ

and say the Trump administration executive orders barring the government from doing business

with select law firms is a big, big, big deal to democracy. Now there are major

law firms agreeing to some kinds of arrangements with the administration and some vowing to

resist. And we'll get a take on this from Harold Hang Ju-Co, Sterling Professor of International

Law and former dean of the Yale Law School.

He formerly served as legal advisor and senior advisor

for the U.S. State Department under Obama and Biden,

respectively, and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

under President Clinton.

And he is co-author of an article on the website, Just Security,

called, No, the President cannot issue bills of attainder and a related amicus brief in a lawsuit filed against the

Justice Department by the law firm Perkins Coy, one of those that Trump's executive orders

have targeted. Professor Coe, thank you for coming on.

Welcome to WNYC. Good to be here, Brian. Start at the beginning, if you would, for people not in the

weeds on the law as it pertains to law firms. What are these executive orders that President Trump

...