Tech companies amicus brief in 9th Circuit case of Washington v. Trump, annotated, explained

On Friday, February 4, the Department of Justice filed a brief in support of an emergency administrative stay of trial court Judge James Robart’s temporary restraining order blocking Donald Trump’s executive orders implementing a Muslim ban. That same day Ninth Circuit appellate court Judges Canby and Friedland denied the request for an immediate freeze on the TRO, and requested briefing from both plaintiff-appellees (the states of Washington and Minnesota) and the defendant-appellants (Trump and other executive branch officials, all represented by the DOJ). Appellees’ brief is due Sunday, February 5, at 11:59 pm PST.  Appellants reply is due Monday, February 6, 2017 at 3 pm PST. (Information at the Ninth Circuit’s web page dedicated to the case).

Meanwhile, an important, interesting, and well-crafted amicus brief on behalf of 97 tech companies, listed in Appendix A in the brief, below. I expect that Washington State will tackle the government’s interpretation of precedent and federal statutes in some detail. The job of an amicus brief is slightly different. A amicus writes as a “friend of the court”, stating its interest in the case and offering legal support specifically in favor of its interest. A good amicus brief is selective, surgically intervening in the swirl of arguments and counterarguments  made by the main parties to the suit raise.

As I have tried to illustrate with the annotations below, this is precisely what the tech companies’ amicus brief has accomplished. The companies’ brief pinpoints the economic threats to and disruptions of American business caused by the executive order, specifically in virtue of the ways in which it is illegal and unconstitutional. The brief argues that an unreasonable, arbitrarily enforceable, potentially open-ended executive order violates both Congressional statutes and Constitutional provisions requiring that immigration be handled in accordance with Due Process, Equal Protection, general reasonableness standards, and non-discrimination on the basis of national origin. To highlight how the technology amicus brief does this I have annotated the copy below. The actual brief begins at page 7 of 53; the earlier material states the argument for the court to accept the brief.

TRO opinion in Washington State litigation against Muslim ban EOs, explained and annotated

The state of Washington was the first state to file its own lawsuit alleging the unconstitutionality of the Trump bans on immigration. This development was significant because states are uniquely positioned to challenge unconstitutional executive orders. They have standing to litigate on behalf many of their affected  residents (under the U.S. extension of parens patriae doctrine). They also have standing to litigate the unique harms that they as states can suffer, e.g. injury to state university systems or state economic wellbeing. Today, Judge James L. Robart, a federal district court court judge in the Western District of Washington State, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Trump executive orders and provided an opinion that tees up the sort of ongoing litigation likely to wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Below is a copy of Judge Robart’s opinion in support of the TRO. I have highlighted passages to aid in following Judge Robart’s reasoning and indicated with green check marks especially significant findings has made.