A huge part of this comes down to Coalfire having a good faith belief that they were acting on the lawful instructions of the rightful authority. Putting myself in their position, I honestly can't think of who I would ask for clarification if the judiciary says it's OK. If there was any hint of a legal question in advance, these are exactly the people you would be asking for a ruling. By seeking the contract, they effectively gave a ruling: this is OK for you to do.

I can't fathom how that wasn't the end of the conversation right there. "Who granted you permission to do this?" "A whole buildingful of judges." "Oh. Sorry, we'll take this up with them."