A Reuters report suggests that Apple and more than 60 other tech companies have ‘backed away’ from fighting Trump’s second travel ban.
The claim is based on the fact that the companies have not yet signed an amicus brief opposing the ban, despite doing so with the first one.
Apple, Google and Facebook are among more than 60 technology companies that appear to have backed away from the legal fight against U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, deciding not to put their weight behind a lawsuit seeking to block the second version of his executive order.
However, it’s unlikely that Apple has a more favorable view of the second ban. As one of the brief’s authors explained, there is still time for Apple to sign.
A legal brief filed in federal court in Hawaii on Tuesday on behalf of Silicon Valley companies listed the support of 58 companies, less than half the 127 signatories to a similar brief filed in an appeals court last month after Trump’s first executive order.
Apple had not responded to Reuters at the time the site wrote its piece.
Companies will have an opportunity to join the effort as it moves through the court system, said Robert Atkins, a New York lawyer and co-author of the brief. “We do expect the group to expand.”
Apple was one of the first companies to respond to the first travel ban, Tim Cook emailing staff to talk of the importance of immigration to the company before contacting the White House to urge senior contacts to rescind the order and then signing an amicus brief to support a bid to overturn it in court – a bid which was successful.
A Hawaiian judge last night ordered an emergency halt to the second travel ban, ruling that it would cause ‘irreparable injury’ by violating First Amendment protections against religious discrimination. President Trump called the ruling ‘judicial overreach’ and said that he was willing to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court.
Photo: ABC News
