Trump’s Tweets Threaten His Travel Ban’s Chances in Court – Mother Jones
Andrew Harnik / AP
President Donald Trump began the week with a Tweets Dam in early morning exploding the courts for blocked his travel ban. But in doing so, he may have just made more likely that the courts block the ban.
People, lawyers and courts can call it as they want, but I call it what we need and what it is, a travel ban!
– Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) June 5, 2017
The judge’s department should have stayed with the ban on original travel, not the watered down version, politically correct that they submitted to SC
– Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) June 5, 2017
The department of the judge should request an accelerated hearing of the prohibition of watered down to the Supreme Court – and look for a much more difficult version!
– Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) June 5, 2017
In any event, we are extremely verified in the United States to help ensure the security of our country. The courts are slow and political!
– Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) June 5, 2017
These tweets followed several during the weekend about the ban and the terrorist attack in London, including this on Saturday evening:
We must be intelligent, vigilant and difficult. We need the courts to make our rights. We need the ban on travel as an additional level of security!
– Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) June 3, 2017
In January, Trump signed an executive decree prohibiting nationals of seven Muslim majority Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days, as well as stopping the refugee resettlement program for 120 days (and indefinitely for Syrian refugees). When the courts blocked it, rather than calling on the Supreme Court, Trump signed a modified version of the order. The new ban has repealed the old one, reduced the number of prohibited countries from seven to six and has added exceptions and derogations. However, the federal courts of Maryland and Hawaii have blocked it, and now the Ministry of Justice appealed to the Supreme Court for this second version of the prohibition to be reintegrated.
The biggest question of the dispute concerning the prohibition is whether the courts should focus only on the text of the order or also consider Trump’s comments of the campaign track, and even during its presidency, to determine whether the order uses national security as a pretext to prohibit Muslims in the country. The president’s lawyers argue that the courts should focus on the text of the Order and rely on the authority of the President on National Security. Trump tweets on Monday morning and during the weekend, it is more difficult for the courts to justify doing so.
The travel ban is supposed to be a temporary appeal until the government can examine its verification procedures. But Trump’s tweets show that the prohibition itself is its goal. Trump repeatedly uses and challenges the word “prohibition” when his administration rather sought to call him a break.
The tweets “undermine the best argument of the government-which the courts should not look beyond the four corners of the decree itself,” said Stephen Vladeck, an expert in national security and in constitutional law to the School of Law of the University of Texas. “That Trump’s statements at the time, at the time, should be important (a point on which reasonable people will probably continue to disagree), the more President Trump says that if the dispute is underway to suggest that the order is pretextual, the more difficult it is to convince the sympathetic judges and judges even as the text of the Order counts.” And once the courts are starting to examine the president’s statements, it is not difficult to find those who raise questions about anti-Muslim motivations.
Even the president’s allies recognize that his tweets are a problem. George Conway, the husband of the High Councilor of Trump, Kellyanne Conway, replied To Trump on Twitter by stressing that the work of the office of the Solicitor General – who defends the ban on travel to court – has become more difficult.
These tweets can ensure that some PPLs feel better, but they will certainly not help OSG get 5 votes in Scotus, which is really important. Sad. https://t.co/zvhcyfm8hr
– George Conway (@ gtconway3d) June 5, 2017
Conway, which recently withdrew his name from the consideration for a post at the Ministry of Justice, then followed to clarify his position.
2)… And of course, my wonderful woman. That’s why I said what I said this morning. Each SENSED WHCO lawyer and each policy …
– George Conway (@ gtconway3d) June 5, 2017
3)… Named at Doj WD agrees with me (as some have already told me). The PT cannot be stressed enough for tweets on legal issues …
– George Conway (@ gtconway3d) June 5, 2017
4)… seriously undermine the administration agenda and the potus – and those who support it, like me, must strengthen this PT and not be timid on this subject.
– George Conway (@ gtconway3d) June 5, 2017
Trump may soon see his tweets used against him in court. Omar Jadwat, the ACLU lawyer who asserted the case before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, told the Washington Post This morning, the ACLU legal team plans to add Trump tweets to its arguments before the Supreme Court. “Tweets really undermine the factual account that the president’s lawyers have tried to highlight, that is to say that, whatever the president said in the past, the second ban is kosher if you look entirely according to his own conditions,” said Jadwat at The Award The The The The The The Job.
