Thursday/ the Executive Order stay, stays

The United States Federal Court (the 9th Circuit court of Appeals) ruled against President Trump’s ‘Travel Ban’ Executive Order today.  The emergency stay (temporary restraining order) that was granted last week by a US District court in Seattle, stays in place. The ruling was extensive and detailed, unanimous at 3-0 and per curiam (a ruling ‘by the court’, not by individual judges. Some observers say the court wanted to make a statement by stipulating that).

There is now no question that the Executive Order was sloppily written, was burdened by public statements about its true intent, and was an executive overreach.  The ruling points out that the three judges disagree that the Executive Order is ‘unreviewable’ (as argued by the White House; so not subject to scrutiny by the Judicial Branch).  The ruling also pointed out that the White House lawyer could not just argue ‘Oh, ignore the bearing the executive order has on permanent legal residents, and make a narrower ruling’ : The White House counsel is not the President, and he is not known to be in the chain of command for any of the Executive Departments. Moreover, in light of the Government’s shifting interpretations of the Executive Order, we cannot say that the current interpretation by the White House counsel, even if authoritative and binding, will persist past the immediate stage of these proceedings. 

On top of all this, no evidence that the Government will suffer irreparable harm was submitted.  So no intelligence re: expected/ active terrorist plots from citizens of the 7 countries, or any of that. The court pointed out that nothing stopped the White House to submit classified information from the CIA to the court (it would stay classified).

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson talks about today’s ruling on Trump’s Travel ban (flanked by Noah Purcell, Solicitor-general for the State of Washington).  President Trump tweeted SEE YOU IN COURT.  Is that eventually going to be the US Supreme Court? Time will tell.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *