States, Companies, Former Secretaries of State File Lawsuits Against Trump Travel Ban

VOA NEWS 

Nearly 100 companies, two states, and two former U.S. secretaries of state have filed arguments against President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim countries with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

A group of prominent Democrats, including former Secretaries of State John Kerry and Madeleine Albright, called for the court to continue blocking the ban Monday, arguing that it was “ill-conceived, poorly implemented, and ill-explained.”
“We view the order as one that ultimately undermines the national security of the United States rather than making us safer,” they argued, in contrast to Trump’s arguments the ban would enhance national security.
In addition, 97 tech companies, including Silicon Valley giants Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, filed a legal brief late Sunday with the ninth circuit, supporting the lawsuit against the travel ban.

Late last week, U.S. District Court Judge James Robart of Washington state temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order temporarily halting travel to the U.S. by refugees and others from seven Muslim majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. On Sunday, the appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s demand to reinstate the travel ban.

Any other interested parties have until late Monday to file briefs with the appeals court, which has jurisdiction over the western United States.
The three-judge 9th circuit panel is expected to rule fairly quickly after the Monday deadline, after which the case will likely move on to the Supreme Court, according to legal analysts.