Washington v. Trump

Faced with the Ninth Circuit decision declining to stay the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against President Trump’s EO, the government must now choose between an array of bad options. To that end, the “least bad” option would be to rescind the current EO and replace it with a new EO that clearly exempts both lawful permanent residents (LPRs) and previously admitted nonimmigrant visa-holders (VHs), such as students and medical residents.

Today’s 9th Circuit decision is a bit less of a big deal than it will play in the press tomorrow; it will play big both because of the high stakes of the current litigation and because of some rhetorical excess in the opinion itself. The hype is also a function of the fact that had the court issued the stay the government sought, that would have been a very big deal as it would have caused the order to snap back into effect just as suddenly as President Trump loosed it on the world the other day.