Following angry tweets all day from President Trump, the U.S. Justice Department filed notice Saturday evening of a formal notice of appeal of a Seattle judge’s temporary restraining order which put the administration's immigration order on hold. The notice followed a statement by the DHS to comply with Friday night’s court ruling by reverting to immigration procedures in place before the Jan. 27 executive order on immigration, and by the State Department to reverse the provisional revocation of about 60,000 visas.
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” the president told his 23.6 million followers after U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle lifted the ban on all refugees and on visa holders from the seven countries. He later wondered “what is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban.”
The administration said it was taking the case to the U.S. court of appeals based in San Francisco, hours after it was promised by the White House. Ironically, as Bloomberg notes, that court is considered far more liberal than most other federal appellate courts, which means that after this action, the next move will be an almost certain escalation to the Supreme Court.
Robart’s comprehensive ruling eclipsed a Trump administration win earlier on Friday, when a federal judge in Boston refused to extend a temporary ruling blocking enforcement at that city’s airport of the ban on immigrants from seven countries. “Why aren’t the lawyers looking at and using the Federal Court decision in Boston, which is at conflict with ridiculous lift ban decision?” Trump said on Twitter.
The DOJ appeal faces an uphill battle: “The Washington suit is so much more broad than anything else we’ve seen because it goes into the economic interests of the parties -- that’s a very big development,” Hoffman said of a likely appeal by the federal government. “Appeals of temporary orders occur only in very, very extraordinary measures. I doubt it would be successful.” The reason why Robart was so quick with his decision is because he had the support of some of America's largest tech companies.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the effects on his state included economic consequences for employers based there, including Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Bellevue, Washington-based Expedia Inc. had about 1,000 customers with flight reservations in or out of the U.S. from the seven countries, he said. Meanwhile, DOJ lawyer Michelle Bennett, arguing at Friday’s hearing, said the president was acting within the authority granted him by Congress and there was no financial harm to the states. The judge disagreed.
Unless the appeals court blocks the lower court order, it will remain in place while the judge considers a request to permanently invalidate the president’s order, Ferguson said that hearing will probably occur within a month.
Echoing criticism of Trump's action from within the Democratic party and progressive human rights groups, David Miliband, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee, said Robart’s ruling demonstrated that Trump’s executive order wasn’t adequately thought out. “There is every right for the administration to review and build on existing arrangements,” Miliband said in an e-mailed statement from the refugee assistance group. “There is no excuse for tearing up carefully developed procedures that have kept America safe.”
Ironically, the appeal hit just minutes after Trump tweeted:
Why aren't the lawyers looking at and using the Federal Court decision in Boston, which is at conflict with ridiculous lift ban decision?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017
The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017
The appeal made official what the Trump White House had promised on Friday night.
As AJC reports, the official notice of appeal was a barebones legal document filed by the Trump Administration.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the defendants Donald Trump, in his official capacity as President of the United States; United States Department of Homeland Security; John F. Kelly, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Rex W. Tillerson, in his official capacity as Secretary of State; and the United States of America hereby appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the February 3, 2017 Order (ECF No. 52) enjoining and restraining enforcement of portions of the January 27, 2017 Executive Order on Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.
This legal fight will now shift to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – an appellate court with a long legal history that shades to the liberal side, guaranteeing weeks of increasingly more angry Trump tweets, before Trump ultimately ends up at the Supreme Court.