Because Friday's temporary restraining order blocking President Trump's executive order on immigration (that's more commonly being called a "Muslim ban") came from a federal judge in Seattle, the Trump Administration is stuck battling this out at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. After the appeals court denied the administration's attempt to get an emergency stay, there is now a midnight filing deadline tonight (Sunday) for the states of Washington and Minnesota, which are now the plaintiffs and appellees in this case, and the Trump Administration and the Justice Department have until 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday to file their reply, as Gothamist reported earlier.
Appellate judges William C. Canby, a Carter appointee, and Michelle T. Friedland, an Obama appointee, have been assigned to the case.
Trump Administration's request for immediate administrative stay DENIED. #MuslimBan #NoWallNoBan #HugALawyer @BBCBreaking #travelban #IAH pic.twitter.com/ybVOvJSwbp
— Mana Yegani (@Law_Mana) February 5, 2017
The President has already lashed out at U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who issued Friday's ruling, calling him a "so-called judge" on Twitter, and then later saying that because of Robart's lifting of the ban "many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country."
Multiple senators on both sides of the aisle criticized Trump for issuing a personal attack against Robart, as the AP reports, with Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska saying, "We don't have so-called judges. We don't have so-called senators. We don't have so-called presidents. We have people from three different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution."
California Senator Dianne Feinstein was similarly harsh "The president is not a dictator. He is the chief executive of our country. And there is a tension between the branches of government."
Vice President Mike Pence defended Trump saying, "The president can criticize anybody he wants. [I think the American people] find it very refreshing that they not only understand this president's mind, but they understand how he feels about things." And, Pence said, "We'll accomplish the stay and will win the case on the merits."
As CBS 5 reports, "Acting Solicitor General Noel Francisco forcefully argued Saturday night that the president alone has the power to decide who can enter or stay in the United States an assertion that appeared to invoke the wider battle to come over illegal immigration."
Francisco argued in her brief that "judicial second-guessing of the President's national security determination in itself imposes substantial harm on the federal government and the nation at large," something that former DOJ attorney Robert Loeb was quick to call out. "I would never have put my name on a filing that said that," he wrote on Twitter.
Robart's ruling nonetheless cleared the way, if temporarily, for people to travel from the seven banned nations into the US, and the State Department made that clear on Saturday.
As the AP reports, German airline Lufthansa posted a statement to their website saying that those holding passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen "are again allowed to travel to the USA." But "short notice changes to the immigration regulations may occur at any time."
The case is expected to head to the Supreme Court, and Feinstein suggested that there, "probably some judgments will be made whether this president has exceeded his authority or not."
Previously: Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration Request To Reinstate Travel Ban