ADL files amicus brief supporting challenge to Trump’s immigration order

WASHINGTON — The Anti-Defamation League filed an amicus brief in federal court Monday supporting the state of Washington’s challenge to President Donald Trump’s highly controversial immigration order.

“When America has closed its doors and allowed its core values to be compromised, the country later looked back in shame,” said the group’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement.

On Friday evening, a federal judge issued a nationwide restraining order against the ban, which suspended US entry for people from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days and froze the entire US refugee program for 120 days.

It also blocked Syrians from entering the country indefinitely.

The ruling — by US District Judge James Robart — was harshly criticized by the president, who referred to him in a tweet as a “so-called judge” and suggested the blame would fall on his shoulders if a terrorist attack ensued that cost American lives.

“Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril,” Trump posted on Sunday afternoon. “If something happens blame him and the court system. People pouring in. Bad!”

Trump administration officials have further said they plan to challenge the ruling vigorously, and on Monday evening, the Justice Department urged a federal court to reinstate the ban.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is expected to rule at some point this week on the matter, before it is likely go to the Supreme Court in the months ahead.

The ADL’s amicus brief — a legal document filed by non-litigants in appellate cases who have a stated interest in the ruling — pointed to the history of Jewish refugees being denied entry onto America’s shores, including the denial of passengers of the MS St. Louis, a German ship filled with 937 Jewish refugees, who were denied entry into the United States in 1939.

“At other times, when prejudice and fear predominate over reason and compassion, we falter, often with devastating consequences, as set forth below in connection with the St. Louis tragedy,” the brief said.

The ADL, a Jewish civil rights organization that monitors and combats anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry around the globe, also cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II following the attacks on Pearl Harbor

The document closes by saying the current travel ban “risks once again sacrificing the nation’s core values in favor of prejudice and fear – a sacrifice that history has repeatedly proven has profound consequences both to the persons who suffer as a result and to the still-vibrant vision of the shining city on the hill.”