“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Those ominous words from Shakespeare’s Henry IV appeared at the start of the opinion of Senior District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee. She was writing to bar Trump from carrying out his executive order penalizing law firm Perkins Coie for its conduct during the 2016 election.

Howell would have been wise to add the lines that appeared later in the same play: “Presume not that I am the thing I was.” The fact is that many of those objecting today to the targeting of Democratic firms and lawyers were the very same people who targeted conservative lawyers for years — or remained utterly silent as those attacks unfolded.

After Howell’s opinion, Perkins Coie issued a statement to NBC News that the ruling “affirms … the right to select counsel without the fear of retribution.” But that is a luxury that conservative lawyers have not known for years.

For the record, I opposed the executive orders of President Trump targeting law firms. But it will take more than a Shakespearean flourish to erase the hypocrisy of many lawyers, law schools, and bar groups in this controversy.

In prior years, Democratic groups unleashed a campaign to pressure firms to fire lawyers who represented Trump, the Republican Party, or conservative causes. That included boycotts and pressure campaigns targeting their clients. They were using the same tactic others used against figures like Elon Musk when he purchased Twitter and sought to dismantle its censorship system.

Their pressure campaigns worked. I personally know lawyers who were told to drop Republican cases or else find new employment — including partners who had to leave their longstanding firms.

Some of the letters signed recently by deans and law professors protesting Trump's orders previously purged their schools of Republicans and conservatives. With only 9 percent of law professors identifying as conservative, most faculties have practically no Republicans or conservatives left.

These campaigns went beyond law firms. Trump Accountability Project, led by former Obama and Buttigieg staffers, made lists of Trump administration officials to hound them out of any employment opportunities.

These........

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