For Immediate Release
March 16, 2017
Contact
Geoffrey Knox at 917-414-1749 or [email protected]
A federal court in Maryland issued an injunction blocking President Trump’s new Muslim ban executive order early this morning, just hours after a Hawaii court issued a nationwide injunction in a separate challenge. The Middle East Studies Association (MESA), along with refugee groups, had joined a lawsuit, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center, in federal district court seeking the injunction.
We had asked the federal court in Maryland to block the Trump administration’s revised executive order, arguing that it would cause irreparable harm to our members and MESA as a scholarly organization dedicated to the free and open exchange of ideas. The order, among other things, bans nationals from six Muslim majority countries. The order directly harms both MESA’s student and faculty members by preventing travel, disrupting research, and impeding careers.
The Maryland district court heard our arguments, and those of our fellow plaintiffs—the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center and HIAS—and has issued a strong judicial condemnation of President Trump’s Muslim ban.
Amy Newhall, executive director of MESA, stated: “If President Trump chooses to continue to defend in the courts what is clearly an unconstitutional executive order, MESA will continue to stand along side our partners in this litigation to fight its implementation every step of the way.”
The decision can be found on the ACLU site.