lotstodo
aka "The Jackal"
A couple of things happened here. The first is that the judge rightfully realized that no President can remove rights from a resident alien or even a visa holder without due process. The law is pretty clear here, and he would have to show some extraordinary circumstance to prevail. Quoting an incident over 15 years old and targeting countries that were not involved in that incident is not "extraordinary". While the reasons for targeting those countries are well known to Homeland Security, they were not artfully nor clearly enumerated in the order.
Good news for supporters of a ban, the judge left in place his ban on issuing new visa's and permits. She just stayed his order as it applies to green card holders and current visa holders.
The second thing that happened yesterday was Trump opening his mouth. The administration has insisted that this is not a "ban on Muslims", and indeed he has not specifically banned them in the order, nor has he banned travel from every Muslim country. However, and this is a huge problem for the administration right now, in an interview yesterday Trump said that Christian immigration from the banned countries "is a huge problem and we are going to help those people out". See what he did there? He just made this a Muslim ban. DOJ now has to not only defend the written order, but his interpretation of it. The ACLU went from a position where they stood to achieve a partial win (the ban on current holders) to a serious liklihood of stopping not only this order but any subsequent order because the intent is tainted by Obama's own public statement.
My opinion, such as it is, is that the stay is correct. I do not see the government prevailing on the existing green card and visa holders as these people have already been vetted. Any presumed incompetence by the previous administration in vetting them holds no legal standing. I do however believe that the President has the right to halt the issuance of new travel documents, just as Jimmy Carter did for Iran. The list of countries and purpose will have to be vigorously defended now in light of Trump's remarks, but a ban on travelers from individual countries is not on the face of it a ban on a particular religion, and has been used before for the purpose of security.
Good news for supporters of a ban, the judge left in place his ban on issuing new visa's and permits. She just stayed his order as it applies to green card holders and current visa holders.
The second thing that happened yesterday was Trump opening his mouth. The administration has insisted that this is not a "ban on Muslims", and indeed he has not specifically banned them in the order, nor has he banned travel from every Muslim country. However, and this is a huge problem for the administration right now, in an interview yesterday Trump said that Christian immigration from the banned countries "is a huge problem and we are going to help those people out". See what he did there? He just made this a Muslim ban. DOJ now has to not only defend the written order, but his interpretation of it. The ACLU went from a position where they stood to achieve a partial win (the ban on current holders) to a serious liklihood of stopping not only this order but any subsequent order because the intent is tainted by Obama's own public statement.
My opinion, such as it is, is that the stay is correct. I do not see the government prevailing on the existing green card and visa holders as these people have already been vetted. Any presumed incompetence by the previous administration in vetting them holds no legal standing. I do however believe that the President has the right to halt the issuance of new travel documents, just as Jimmy Carter did for Iran. The list of countries and purpose will have to be vigorously defended now in light of Trump's remarks, but a ban on travelers from individual countries is not on the face of it a ban on a particular religion, and has been used before for the purpose of security.
