Press Release  AG Healey Files Brief in U.S. Supreme Court Travel Ban Case

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing President Trump’s third travel ban.

The brief was filed in Trump v. Hawaii ahead of arguments scheduled for April 25. In this challenge to the third iteration of the travel ban, the district court entered a nationwide preliminary injunction that prohibits enforcement of President Trump’s indefinite ban on the entry into the U.S. of nationals from six overwhelmingly Muslim countries. The Ninth Circuit largely affirmed the injunction, which now protects foreign nationals with a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

“This discriminatory travel ban has harmful effects on our residents, businesses and institutions,” AG Healey said. “Since day one I have fought to uphold the rule of law, and will continue to do so to protect the people and interests of Massachusetts.”

The attorneys general write, “All of amici States benefit from immigration, tourism, and international travel by students, academics, skilled professionals, and business-people. The disputed provisions of the Proclamation—like the previous bans—significantly disrupt the ability of our public universities to recruit and retain students and faculty, impairing academic staffing and research, and causing the loss of tuition and tax revenues, among other costs. The Proclamation also disrupts the provision of medical care at our hospitals and harms our science, technology, finance, and tourism industries by inhibiting the free exchange of information, ideas, and talent between the designated countries and our States, causing long-term economic and reputational damage. In addition, the ban has made it more difficult for us to effectuate our own constitutional and statutory policies of religious tolerance and nondiscrimination.”

The brief, like previous ones led or joined by AG Healey, details the numerous grave and irreparable harms the States have continued to face as a result of the Trump Administration’s travel bans. The injunction provides critical protection against those injuries.

AG Healey previously filed suit against President Trump’s first and revised travel bans, and sought a temporary restraining order opposing the implementation of the third travel ban.

The brief, which was led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and joined by AG Healey, was also joined by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

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