How Massachusetts attorneys sprang into action following President Trump's Muslim ban

The Boston Bar Association's blog Voices of the Bar recently asked local attorneys about their experience in the immediate aftermath of President Trump's Muslim travel ban. The ALCU of Massachusetts' legal director Matthew Segal shared what he was doing in the critical hours following the order:

“The ACLU told President Trump we would see him in court if he ordered this unconstitutional ban on Muslims, and we have. As soon as we heard about the illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous Muslim ban, we began trying to help its victims. On Saturday, January 28, I learned from attorneys Susan Church and Kerry Doyle about U.S. lawful permanent residents who were being detained at Logan Airport. Lawyers from the ACLU of Massachusetts, Mintz Levin, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association of New England sprang into action. We hurried to draft and file a complaint, and to ask the federal court to convene an emergency hearing. The court agreed.

We all rushed to the Moakley Courthouse in Boston, and two federal judges heard our arguments in the middle of the night, in front of a courtroom packed with civil rights advocates and journalists. By the time the hearing ended, just before 2 a.m., we had historic rulings from federal courts in Boston and throughout the nation to block the ban, at least temporarily. Now we are fighting for its full repeal.”

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Photo: Matthew Segal speaks to reporters outside the Boston federal court following the February 1st hearing on Louhghalam v. Trump, the ACLU of Massachusetts' case challenging the ban.