Covington & Burling and civil rights co-counsel may seek intervention from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit following a “setback” in their lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Lambda Legal and Covington are “unlikely to prevail on either their First or Fifth Amendment claim,” U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the District of Columbia wrote in a memorandum opinion filed Friday. “With no claim likely to succeed on the merits, the Court ‘need not proceed to review the other three preliminary injunction factors’ and will deny Plaintiffs’ motion.”