The legal fight over an immigration order by President Trump will escalate on Tuesday, as three appeals court judges hear arguments over whether to reinstate the order, which bans refugees as well as visitors from seven countries from entering the United States.
The hour-long hearing is set for 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET, and anyone will be able to tune into a livestream of the proceedings. Because the hearing is taking place by telephone, the stream will be audio-only.
If you want to listen to State of Washington & State of Minnesota v. Trump, simply go to this link provided by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 9th Circuit, which is more tech-friendly than most of its sister courts including the Supreme Court, has also put up a webpage with all the documents in the case.
These documents include a much-publicized amicus (aka “friend of the court”) brief, which opposes the travel ban, by nearly 100 tech companies including Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL). Yesterday, a group of other companies—including Tesla (TSLA), ClassPass and Pandora (P) —also signed on to the brief.
So what’s going to happen? It’s important to note the 9th Circuit hearing is not about whether or not Trump’s order is unconstitutional. Instead, it is about whether to maintain a temporary block on Trump’s order while courts take a closer look at the constitutional question.
The temporary block went into place last week after U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle sided with two states over the Justice Department. This led to a fresh controversy after President Trump disparaged Robart as a “so-called judge.” Robart is a Republican appointed by George W. Bush, and received unanimous confirmation by the Senate.
The 9th Circuit is likely to rule later this week. Most legal scholars expect the appeal court to uphold the temporary block, teeing the case up for the Supreme Court.
Here is an explanation of how the case can land before the Supreme Court, and what might happen next.
