President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A First Amendment advocacy group is suing the Trump administration to try and force the government to release details about the deals it has struck with "targeted" law firms.
The 14-page lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University seeks to "compel compliance with the Freedom of Information Act" (FOIA) — the law that provides the public "the right to request access to records from any federal agency."
The group said they made their initial FOIA request in May and thus should have received a response within 20 business days, but instead have been stonewalled — either with no answers or a claim from the Office of Information Policy that the request fell under "unusual circumstances" and an estimated time frame could not be given.
The Knight First Amendment Institute sees this behavior from the government as outside of the bounds of the transparency law.
"An indefinite delay—here, up to two years without a final determination and where OIP has refused to engage with Plaintiff regarding an alternative time frame for processing or narrowing the scope of the request—is tantamount to a constructive denial of a FOIA request," the lawsuit reads. "Defendants' failure to unconditionally grant Plaintiff's request for a waiver of search, review, and duplication fees violates FOIA."
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To explain why they are seeking the records, the pro-First Amendment group recounted the first months of the current administration — and the account is not kind to President Donald Trump.
"Since January 2025, President Donald Trump has undertaken an unprecedented campaign to punish law firms whose clients, causes, or personnel he disfavors. Through a series of executive orders and presidential memoranda, the Trump Administration has directed federal agencies to target individual firms, including by scrutinizing their internal employment policies," the filing reads.
The filing maintains that less than three months into the new federal government, at least nine law firms "under pressure" from the president "capitulated by striking agreements with the Trump Administration" largely by reducing or eradicating programs concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
"Despite the significance of these agreements to public understanding of the Trump Administration's efforts to punish its political opponents, the agreements are not public," the lawsuit reads.
The Knight First Amendment Institute referred to these law firms as "targeted" ones. It wants the administration to be required to "conduct a thorough search" for the relevant records and have the Southern District of New York court "[d]eclare that Defendants have violated FOIA by improperly withholding the Requested Documents" and order them to be released.
The nonprofit organization has taken aim at Trump before.
In July, they reminded U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that three months had passed since they urged her to lift an injunction blocking the release of then-special counsel Jack Smith's full report on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe and erstwhile Espionage Act prosecution of Trump.
Several months before that, the Knight Center urged a federal court to add The Associated Press back into the select group of journalists who make up the White House "press pool" against the wishes of the administration.
