Today, our firm filed its fourth brief in support of President Trump’s effort to impose immigration controls. This brief supported President Trump’s second Executive Order issued on March 6, 2017 — to secure our borders against entry by those coming from select countries where their background cannot be checked.
Our first two briefs were filed in the Washington State challenge, in the Ninth Circuit — one on February 6, 2017 and one on February 16, 2017, with respect to the first Trump Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017. Our third brief was filed in the Fourth Circuit in litigation brought by IRAP on March 31, 2017.
This latest brief exposed the weakness of the District of Hawaii’s decision by applying his method of analysis to President Thomas Jefferson’s military actions with respect to the Barbary pirates in 1801. It also demonstrated why neither the State of Hawaii nor plaintiff Dr. Elshikh has legal standing to challenge the second Executive Order. Also, the Plaintiffs had argued that the second Executive Order violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. As our brief explained, Establishment Clause claims involve cases where the government has acted to favor a particular religion. Here, however, the Plaintiffs alleged the government had acted to disfavor their religion — a Free Exercise claim. Finally, we again argued that this suit should not have been filed directly against the President, but only against subordinate officers.