Intl. Refugee Assistance v. Donald J. Trump
Filing
91
AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF by Amici Curiae, Civil Rights Organizations in Support of Appellees in electronic and paper format. Method of Filing Paper Copies: mail. Date Paper Copies Mailed, Dispatched, or Delivered to Court: 11/17/2017. [1000194348] [17-2231, 17-2232, 17-2233, 17-2240] Lynne Bernabei [Entered: 11/17/2017 10:36 AM]
Case Nos. 17-2231 (L), 17-2232, 17-2233, 17-2240 (Consolidated)
IN THE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE ASSISTANCE PROJECT, ET AL.,
Plaintiffs and Appellees,
v.
DONALD J. TRUMP, ET AL.,
Defendants and Appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Maryland, No. 17-cv-00361 (Chuang, J.)
UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE AMICI CURIAE BRIEF
BY CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS
IN SUPPORT OF APPELLEES
FOR AFFIRMANCE OF PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
BERNABEI & KABAT, PLLC
Lynne Bernabei (D.C. Bar No. 938936)
bernabei@bernabeipllc.com
Alan R. Kabat (D.C. Bar No. 464258)
kabat@bernabeipllc.com
1400 – 16th Street, N.W., Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20036-2223
(202) 745-1942
(202) 745-2627 (Fax)
Attorneys for Amici Curiae
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People;
Advocates for Youth;
Center for Reproductive Rights;
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law;
The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law;
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
Mississippi Center for Justice;
National Center for Lesbian Rights;
National Urban League;
People for the American Way Foundation;
Southern Coalition for Social Justice; and
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
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On behalf of Amici National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, Advocates for Youth, Center for Reproductive Rights, Chicago Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for
Mental Health Law, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Mississippi
Center for Justice, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Urban League,
People for the American Way Foundation, Southern Coalition for Social Justice,
and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, we seek
the Court’s permission to file a brief of amici curiae in support of Appellees. The
parties consent to the filing of the proposed amici brief, which accompanies this
motion.
As set forth below, amici are national and regional civil rights groups
interested in the promotion of civil liberties throughout the country, and
elimination of discrimination in whatever form:
1.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights grassroots organization.
Since its founding in 1909, the mission of the NAACP has been to ensure the
political, educational, social, and economic equality of all persons and to eliminate
race-based discrimination. The NAACP has fought in the courts for decades to
protect the guarantee of equal protection under law. To advance its mission, the
NAACP has represented parties in landmark civil rights cases, perhaps most
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famously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which
outlawed segregation in public schools. The NAACP also has filed numerous
amicus briefs over its decades of existence in cases that significantly impact
minority groups.
2.
The Advocates for Youth (Advocates) is a nonprofit organization that
helps young people make informed and responsible decisions about their
reproductive and sexual health. For more than three decades, Advocates has
partnered with youth leaders, adult allies, and youth-serving organizations to
advocate for effective adolescent reproductive and sexual health programs and
policies. In 2017, Advocates launched the Muslim youth Leadership Council
(MyLC). MyLC is a yearlong Leadership Council dedicated to bringing together
young Muslim-identifying people in the United States and furthering their goals of
becoming leaders within their communities and beyond. Each year MyLC recruits
and trains 15-20 young people who advocate for the inclusion of young Muslimidentifying people in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of Reproductive
Justice related programming and policies at the local, state, and federal levels.
3.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is a global human rights
organization that uses the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental
right that all governments are legally obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill. In the
United States, CRR’s work focuses on ensuring that all people have access to a full
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range of high-quality reproductive health care. Since its founding in 1992, CRR
has been actively involved in nearly all major litigation in the U.S. concerning
reproductive rights, in both state and federal courts, including most recently,
serving as lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt,
136 S. Ct. 2292 (2016). As a rights-based organization, the Center has a vital
interest in protecting individuals who endeavor to exercise their fundamental rights
free from unwarranted government intrusion and discrimination. CRR’s ability to
bring litigation challenging executive and regulatory action, and to seek relief
where individuals are threatened with irreparable harm, is crucial to its mission.
4.
The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (CLCCR) is a
nonprofit public interest law organization founded in 1969. CLCCR works to
secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all. CLCCR provides legal
representation through partnerships with the private bar, and collaborates with
grassroots organizations and other advocacy groups to implement communitybased solutions that advance civil rights. In all practice areas, including education
equity, fair housing, economic opportunity, hate crime prevention, and voting
rights, CLCCR advocates for immigrants who have been subject to raciallydiscriminatory governmental practices and policies. CLCCR’s goal is to ensure
that America fulfills its promise of democracy and equal justice for all.
5.
The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a
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national public interest organization founded in 1972 to advance the rights of
individuals with mental disabilities. The Bazelon Center advocates for laws and
policies that provide people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities the
opportunities and resources they need to participate fully in their communities. Its
litigation and policy advocacy is based on the Americans with Disabilities Act’s
guarantees of non-discrimination and reasonable accommodation. People with
mental illness or intellectual disability commonly face discrimination based on
myths and stereotypes, and the eradication of such discrimination is among the
Bazelon Center’s primary goals.
6.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is a national impact-
litigation, public-policy, and advocacy organization committed to achieving full
recognition of the civil rights of those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or
transgender or living with HIV—including many who are Muslim and face
increased discrimination because of the challenged Executive Order. Through its
decades of work on behalf of historically persecuted people, Lambda Legal has
deep knowledge of the corrosive effect of government measures that single out
marginalized groups for mistreatment. Lambda Legal has also worked to vindicate
protections afforded by the Establishment Clause to those treated unequally based
on religious beliefs and affiliations, and has a long-standing interest in access to
immigration and asylum for individuals who are LGBT or living with HIV.
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Lambda Legal has participated as counsel or amicus curiae in the Supreme Court
and lower courts in numerous cases addressing First Amendment, Equal
Protection, and other civil-rights bulwarks for LGBT people, and has had a longstanding interest in immigration and asylum matters. For example, Lambda Legal
has served as party counsel in Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996); Lawrence v.
Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003); and Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015), and
participated as an amicus in asylum cases such as Hernandez-Montiel v. INS, 225
F.3d 1084 (9th Cir. 2000), and Velasquez-Banegas v. Lynch, 846 F.3d 258 (7th Cir.
2017).
7.
The Mississippi Center for Justice is a nonprofit public interest law
organization founded in 2003 in Jackson, Mississippi and committed to advancing
racial and economic justice. Supported and staffed by attorneys and other
professionals, the Center develops and pursues strategies to combat discrimination
and poverty statewide. One of amicus’ original areas of interest involved predatory
loan practices directed at migrant poultry workers, and MCJ has remained
concerned about the plight of Mississippi’s growing immigrant population for the
last decade, particularly in the areas of access to healthcare, education, housing,
and fair lending.
8.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national non-
profit legal organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of
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lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation,
public policy advocacy, and public education. Since its founding in 1977, NCLR
has played a leading role in combating discrimination and securing fair and equal
treatment for LGBT people and their families in cases across the country involving
constitutional and civil rights. NCLR has a particular interest in protecting the
rights of LGBT immigrants and other immigrants to this country. Since 1994,
NCLR’s Immigration Project has provided free legal assistance to thousands of
LGBT immigrants nationwide through, among other services, direct representation
of immigrants in impact cases and individual asylum cases and advocacy for
immigration and asylum policy reform.
9.
The National Urban League is a civil rights organization dedicated to
the empowerment of African Americans to achieve economic parity and racial
equality. Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the League
improves the lives of more than two million people annually across the nation
through direct service programs, including education, employment training and
placement, housing, and health. The Urban League seeks to ensure our civil rights
by actively working to eradicate all barriers to equal participation in all aspects of
American society, whether political, economic, social, educational, or cultural.
10.
People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) is a nonpartisan
civic organization established to promote and protect civil and constitutional rights,
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including religious liberty and freedom from discrimination. Founded in 1981 by a
group of civic, educational, and religious leaders, PFAWF now has hundreds of
thousands of members nationwide. Over its history, PFAWF has conducted
extensive education, outreach, litigation, and other activities to promote these
values. PFAWF strongly supports the principles that it violates the First
Amendment and civil rights principles for government to take action that,
effectively or on its face, harms one particular religious group. This is especially
important because of the additional harm such government opprobrium can and has
caused, and with respect to particularly vulnerable populations like immigrants, as
in this case.
11.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is a nonprofit public interest
law organization founded in 2007 in Durham, North Carolina. SCSJ partners with
communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to
advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of
legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Originally, one of
amicus’ primary practice areas was immigrants’ rights, which remains important to
its mission. SCSJ frequently advocates on behalf of immigrants who have been
subject to racially-discriminatory governmental practices, and promotes the
application of basic human rights principles to policies affecting migrant
communities.
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12.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban
Affairs is a non-profit civil rights organization established to eradicate
discrimination and poverty by enforcing civil rights laws through litigation. In
furtherance of this mission, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has a dedicated
Immigrant Rights Project, which has served as a critical resource for some of the
most vulnerable populations in the Washington, D.C. area: newcomers and nonEnglish speakers, who are often discriminated against on the basis of their religious
background or national origin, and who are often unaware of their legal rights and
protections.
This case, and several other related cases that seek to enjoin President
Trump’s September 24, 2017 Executive Order, “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities
and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists
or Other Public-Safety Threats” are important, and the participation of Civil Rights
Organizations is desirable. The Amici are national and regional civil rights groups
interested in the promotion of civil liberties throughout the country, and
elimination of discrimination in whatever form. Amici’s proposed brief argues that
the public interest weighs heavily in favor of enjoining President Trump’s
Executive Order, as the Order improperly promotes social categorization and
stereotyping that endangers the lives and well-being of individuals of the Muslim
faith.
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The attached proposed amici brief complies with the type-volume limitation
for an amicus brief on the merits, because it contains less than half of the 13,000
words allotted for Appellants’ opening brief.
All parties consent to filing of the proposed amicus brief.
DATED: November 17, 2017
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Lynne Bernabei
Lynne Bernabei
bernabei@bernabeipllc.com
Alan R. Kabat
kabat@bernabeipllc.com
Bernabei & Kabat, PLLC
1400 – 16th Street, N.W., Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20036-2223
(202) 745-1942
(202) 745-2627 (Fax)
Counsel for Amici Curiae
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CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
This motion complies with the typeface requirements of Fed. R. App. P.
32(a)(5) and the type style requirements of Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(6) because it uses
a proportionally spaced typeface (Times New Roman) in 14-point.
/s/ Alan R. Kabat
__________________
Alan R. Kabat
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on November 17, 2017, I electronically filed the
foregoing document with the Clerk of the Court for the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by using the appellate CM/ECF system.
Participants in the case are registered CM/ECF users, and service will be
accomplished by the appellate CM/ECF system.
/s/ Alan R. Kabat
__________________
Alan R. Kabat
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