Obama-Appointed Hawaiian Judge Freezes Trump Travel Restrictions Before They Take Effect

Of course.

This Twitter thread by a lawyer associated with CATO notes this judge did not write much about the policy at all -- instead, he spends almost all his time arguing about Trump's motives that animated it.

He can't find anything unconstitutional about the actual policy, so he just says "But this guy is motivated by anti-Islamic bigotry so the policy, somehow, becomes unconstitutional."

Which puts us in the Alice in Wonderland situation of one president not being able to enact a policy, whereas another president -- one who has all his Social Justice Warrior Wokeness boxes ticked -- can enact the very same policy.

He also notes the people who brought the lawsuit (nominally -- I'm sure this was really a case of an interest group recruiting potential plaintiffs) didn't even apply for a waiver, which they could in fact do, meaning they did not exhaust all possible alternatives before filing to enjoin the executive order. He says this is a very easy reversal, based just on that.

Of course, that assumes the Ninth Circus justices care about the law when they issue their rulings -- which is very much in doubt.

posted by Ace at 07:41 PM

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