By Professor Vincent Bonventre
The decision in one sentence:
The Trump administration failed to show that the country was in grave danger unless the Executive Order was allowed to go into effect immediately.
A step by step outline of the 9th Circuit Decision:
- What does President Trump’s executive order do? It suspends for 90 days the entry of non-citizens from seven countries; suspends for 120 days the United States Refugee Admissions Program; and suspends indefinitely the entry of all Syrian refugees.
- Do the states (Washington and Minnesota) have a right to challenge the executive order? YES. The states have “standing” because non-citizens who live and work in those states will be seriously harmed by the executive order, and so will educational, business, and other institutions in those states that rely on those non-citizens.
- Does the President have the power to issue such an executive order? YES. On matters of immigration and national security, the President has wide-ranging authority, and the judicial branch should almost always defer to presidential judgments in these matters.
- But is the President’s executive order entirely immune from judicial review? NO. To quote from the decision, the “fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy” provides for a judicial check on the other branches of government to insure that they do not violate the Constitution, and executive orders such as this one are no exception.
