WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from executing a March presidential memorandum to revoke the security clearance of prominent attorney Mark Zaid, ruling that the order — which also targeted 14 other people — could not apply to him.

Tuesday's decision marked the administration's second legal setback this week, after the Supreme Court did not allow the deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area, capping a first year in which the President Donald Trump's efforts to impose his agenda and seek retaliation against political adversaries have been repeatedly stopped by the courts.

Federal Judge Amir Ali in Washington granted Zaid's request for a preliminary injunction after he sued the Trump administration in May over the revocation of his security clearance. In his request, Zaid called it an act of “undue political retaliation” that jeopardized his ability to continue representing clients in sensitive national security cases.

The March presidential memo singled out Zaid and 14 others who the White House said were unsuitable to maintain their clearances because “it was no longer in the national interest.” The list included targets of Trump's fury from both the political and legal spheres, including former deputy state attorney general Lisa Monaco; New York State Attorney General Letitia James; former President Joe Biden and members of his family.

The action was part of a much broader campaign of retaliation that Trump has waged since his return to the White House, including ordering targeted Justice Department investigations against perceived adversaries and issuing sweeping executive orders targeting law firms for legal work he doesn't like.

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In August, the Trump administration revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials. Revoking these authorizations is a tactic that Trump uses a lot—or at least tries to—against high-profile political figures, lawyers and intelligence officials in his second term.

Zaid said in his lawsuit that he has represented clients across the political spectrum for nearly 35 years, including government, security and military officials, as well as informants. In 2019, he represented an intelligence community whistleblower whose account of a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy helped set the stage for the first of two impeachments against Trump in his first term.

“This court joins several others in this district that have prohibited the government from using summary revocation of security clearances to penalize lawyers for representing persons adverse to it,” Ali wrote in his order.

Ali emphasized that his order does not prevent the government from revoking or suspending Zaid's clearance for reasons independent of the presidential memorandum and through normal agency processes. The preliminary injunction goes into effect until January 13.

Zaid said in a statement that “this is not just a victory for me, it is an indictment of the Trump administration's attempts to intimidate and silence the legal community, especially lawyers who represent people who dare to question or hold this administration accountable.”

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Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.