Travel Ban Challenge

Case Summary

M&S, along with co-counsel Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, represent prominent Iranian-American organizations Pars Equality Center, Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, and Iranian American Bar Association as well as over twenty individuals in litigation challenging President Trump’s first, second, and third travel bans. In 2017-2018, Plaintiffs filed three motions for preliminary injunction in Washington, DC federal court and presented argument and evidence over the course of three court hearings. The Plaintiff organizations also engaged in successful advocacy resulting in congressional oversight of the implementation of the ban.

The case became the first challenge to the travel ban nationwide to present live testimony in an evidentiary hearing. During this hearing, members of the Iranian American groups testified about the ban’s negative impact.

M&S and co-counsel also filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court regarding the sham waiver “system” put into place by the third travel ban. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg directly referenced the brief multiple times in oral argument, questioning whether the waiver system was mere “window dressing.” In their opinions dissenting from the majority’s decision upholding the legality of the ban, Justices Breyer and Sotomayor continued to rely on facts and statistics from the M&S and co-counsel amicus.