Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat Author Amicus Brief Challenging Trump’s Travel Ban

JUNE 1, 2017

Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law and seven other non-profit legal groups, in the appeal challenging the Trump Administration’s Executive Order that banned immigration from a number of countries. Their amicus brief argued that the Executive Order improperly promoted social categorization and stereotyping, thereby endangering the lives and well-beings of individuals because of their religion, and that the Equal Protection Clause prohibits actions that are motivated by animus.

On May 25, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its en banc decision upholding the injunction against the Executive Order, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the Executive Order improperly discriminated on the basis of religion. The majority opinion concluded that the Executive Order “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law has also discussed the significance of this decision.