February has already been a wild ride. Just three days into the month, a Bush-era federal judge, James L. Robart, sided with Washington state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a lawsuit against Donald Trump and his administration regarding his executive order about immigration and refugees.
Ummm... What? That’s one sentence I never thought I’d write. But I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to do so. Ferguson hit the nail on the head with this statement after the lawsuit win, "No one is above the law — not even the president. And in the courtroom, it is not the loudest voice that prevails. It’s the Constitution." Well said, my man, well said.
Can this lawsuit really stop his executive order, though? While the final answer is still up in the air for now, the answer is yes. The executive order has essentially had a restraining order placed on it, which is effective immediately. Visa holders of the seven countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia) affected by the ban are able to board planes destined for the US, for now.
Knowledge of how many visa holders were denied entry during the ban is not known exactly, but estimates range between 60,000 to 100,000. Originally, Press Secretary Sean Spicer had said that only 109 people were stopped for additional questioning.
That statement from Spicer didn’t last long. As like most things from the Trump administration, it was mostly false. Just one day later, Spicer corrected himself, admitting that that number only referred to people who were traveling at the time the order was signed.
Right now, there is no doubt the White House and the Department of Justice are scrambling to reverse the lawsuit. The White House released a statement in reply to the outcome of the lawsuit, the first sentence read as, “At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate.”
Unsurprisingly, about 10 minutes later, they re-released an altered version of the original statement. In the new version, they omitted the "outrageous" wording used in the first copy: “At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate.”
My oh my. Way to go, White House. I’m sure nobody noticed that change anyway. You’re in the clear. It’s not like anyone is concerned with or critiques what comes out of your offices anyway, right? [/sarcasm].
Personally, I’m sad to say I’m no longer surprised at how the Trump administration words things. The feedback I receive on papers from professors and students at school contain more professionalism than what flows out of the White House nowadays. Maybe they need a new writer… I’ll have to make sure I send my resume their way sometime soon.
