Legal Salvo From US Tech Firms On Travel Ban

The legal battles over President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban took another turn as roughly 100 technology companies filed a legal brief Sunday opposing the ban.

The group, which features tech stalwarts such as Microsoft, Twitter, Intel, Google and Apple, noted Reuters, said in the filing that the ban would bring “significant harm on American business.”

The brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and stated that the Trumpian order looking to bar entry into the U.S. by people from seven countries (marked by mostly Muslim countries) “represents a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system of the United States for more than 50 years …. Immigrants and their children founded more than 200 of the companies on the Fortune 500 list.”

As has been reported, the tech community has been outspoken in its criticism of Trump’s order, partly on the grounds that stifling immigration would stifle innovation, stemming from overseas talent settling into stateside roles. Trump, for his part, has argued that the ban would protect the U.S. from terror attacks on U.S. soil.

In terms of recent chronology, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (in San Francisco) denied the Trump administration’s move for a stay of a federal judge’s order. That order, at the federal level, had blocked the travel ban from being widely adopted. The administration has until this evening to file legal briefs to explain why the executive order and travel ban should be allowed to proceed.