(photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images).
There are going to be two ways of fighting Donald Trump’s executive order authorizing bigotry against Middle-Eastern Muslims. The first way, attacking the entire ban as unconstitutional, is the method that has gotten all of the attention. Washington State was successful on getting the first one stopped on these grounds. Hawaii, Washington, and pretty much all states with attorneys Donald Trump can’t fire are on the move challenging the second ban.
But there’s another equally important way of challenging the bans, as unconstitutional as applied to a specific set of facts. This second way takes longer. You have to wait until an actual person is screwed over by the bigoted policies. And rulings along these lines can be extremely limited. But with enough time and pressure, the travel bans can be picked apart like leftover chicken, one unconstitutional application at a time.
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The first shot across that incremental bow comes from Wisconsin. U.S. District Judge William Conley issued a temporary restraining order, preventing Trump from keeping out the wife and child of a Syrian refugee already living in America. From the ABA Journal:
His wife and child had been cleared by the vetting process and were due for final processing, only to find that their applications had been put on hold by Trump’s original travel ban…
“The court appreciates that there may be important differences between the original executive order and the revised executive order,” Conley wrote in his decision. “As the order applies to the plaintiff here, however, the court finds his claims have at least some chance of prevailing for the reasons articulated by other courts.”
We’ve been fighting about the travel ban, both versions, from 30,000 feet. We’ve been fighting about the macro issues and the theoretical effects and the impact on our national character. We haven’t even begun to fight this mess on the small scale. The closer you zoom in on this law, the worse it gets. As the Trump Administration tries to deny specific individuals entry based on their religion and nation of origin, the courts are going to be flooded with challenges.
And we haven’t talked damages yet. The quest to hold Trumpsters accountable for the pain and suffering they’ve caused with these orders will last a decade, maybe decades. Trump will be a disgraced former president living in a KGB safehouse while victims he’s creating now still fight him in court.
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Looking at the specific harm as opposed to the generalized faults is a longer process. But it has a high likelihood of success.
Wisconsin federal judge issues injunction against revised travel ban for family of Syrian refugee [ABA Journal]
Earlier: Hawaii’s Challenge To Travel Ban 2.0 Doesn’t Take The Bait
Ninth Circuit UPHOLDS Temporary Restraining Order On Trump’s Travel Ban
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.