A federal judge in Boston Friday turned down a request from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) to extend a temporary restraining order that prohibits U.S. Customs and Border agents from enforcing aspects of President Donald Trump's travel ban.
From the very beginning, Judge Nathanial Gorton was skeptical and his decision not to extend a temporary travel ban on Trump’s executive order did not come entirely as a surprise. Matthew Segal of the ACLU argued that the travel ban discriminates against Muslims, but Gorton said he read nothing in Trump’s Executive Order that specifically singled out Muslims.
Segal then referenced Trump's own words from December 2015 calling for a “complete and total ban on Muslims” entering the country. Later, when lawyer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts asserted that Trump’s directive violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, Gorton questioned its applicability in this case. Matthew Segal said the ACLU's request for a permanent injunction would allow more time to deal with a rash of new cases of green card and visa holders being denied boarding access by airlines. Outside the courtroom, he told reporters:
"What this is about is what are going to be the ground rules while we litigate this case, and what we’ve seen in the last week is that people have been thrown into chaos, their lives have been up ended, and what we are talking about is an affecting peoples’ lives every day," Segal added.
Lawyers for the government argued that the problems affecting green card holders were largely moot and extending the injunction was unnecessary. Judge Gorton took all the arguments under advisement and will make a ruling sometime Sunday, before the seven-day injunction expires.
