On Friday, our new President signed an executive order banning those from 7 Muslim countries from entering the United States, even if they had been granted refugee status, and even if they were green card or visa holders. This blatant discrimination based on national origin (and, let’s be honest, it’s really based on religion, given that all 7 countries are Muslim-majority and Trump had flat-out said he would ban Muslims during his campaign) guaranteed a legal showdown which began yesterday after at least a dozen people with passports from those 7 nations were detained at JFK airport in New York.

Yesterday, attorneys for Hameed Khalid Darweesh filed a class action lawsuit requesting a writ of habaes corpus (court order to free a person) on behalf of Mr. Darweesh, who apparently was detained under this new order, and anyone similarly situated to him. It’s worthy of note that this man is a refugee from Iraq who cannot return to his home country because he assisted the U.S. military during our operations there. Filed with his petition was a motion for an emergency temporary restraining order, asking the court to prohibit U.S. Customs & Border Patrol from enforcing Trump’s order, and U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly, after conducting an astoundingly prompt hearing, granted that request, ordering all officers of the United States be:

ENJOINED AND RESTRAINED from, in any manner or by any means, removing individuals with refugee applications approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and other individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen legally authorized to enter the United States.

This is widely reported by the media (CNN, The Guardian, New York Times), but perhaps because of the late hour and lack of legal analysts on hand, they missed the significance of the next paragraph of Judge Donnelly’s order:

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that to assure compliance with the Court’s order, the Court directs service of this Order upon the United States Marshal for the Eastern District of New York, and further directs the United States Marshal Service to take those actions deemed necessary to enforce the provisions and prohibitions set forth in this Order.

I’ve never seen an order like that directed against the U.S. government in my life. What the judge just did is sent federal law enforcement affiliated with the court to JFK airport to make sure other federal law enforcement obeys the order. In other words, Judge Donnelly does not trust that the Trump administration will follow the law and pre-emptively sent muscle to carry out her order.

If you’re to believe the Daily Kos, a source that I don’t necessarily consider reliable due to political bias on par with Fox News, but in the other direction, the U.S. Marshals were sent with good reason: they report that in other airports, U.S. Customs & Border patrol has ignored the order. [Update: The Guardian also reporting non-compliance by CBP.]

If Trump chooses to direct his agencies to ignore court orders, this could be a very rapid beginning and end to his administration, as I cannot imagine Congress not impeaching a president who does so. This situation may come to a head quite soon… stay tuned…

“Jon Corbett is a civil rights advocate known for filing the first lawsuit against the deployment of TSA nude body scanners, as well as defeating the body scanners live in ‘How to Get ANYTHING Through TSA Nude Body Scanners.’ Presently a law student, he continues to advocate for travel and privacy rights. Twitter: @_JonCorbett, Web:https://professional-troublemaker.com/“

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