WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine, part of a coalition of 18 Attorneys General, filed a new amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing President Trump’s travel ban.

The brief was filed in related cases Trump v. IRAP (No. 16-1436) and Trump v. Hawaii (No. 16-1540), ahead of arguments scheduled for October 10th. In both cases, the district courts entered nationwide preliminary injunctions prohibiting, among other things, enforcement of President Trump’s 90-day ban on the entry to the U.S. of nationals from six overwhelmingly Muslim countries, the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, and the reduction of the Program’s refugee cap. Both the Fourth Circuit and the Ninth Circuit affirmed the injunctions.

“Amici have a strong interest in respondents’ challenges to the Order, and to its travel ban in particular, which has already caused – and absent the continuation of the injunctions, will continue to cause – substantial harm to our universities, hospitals, businesses, communities, and residents,” the brief reads.

“While the amici States differ in many ways, all welcome and benefit from immigration, tourism, and international travel by students, academics, skilled professionals, and businesspeople. Notwithstanding the injunctions now in place, the travel ban has inflicted economic damage on the States themselves through lost tuition and increased administrative costs at the States’ public universities and colleges, as well as diminished tax revenues. The ban has also disrupted the provision of medical care at the States’ hospitals and harmed our science, technology, health care, finance, and tourism industries by inhibiting the free exchange of information, ideas, and talent between the six designated countries and the amici States. In addition, the ban has hindered the States from effectuating our own constitutional and statutory policies of religious tolerance and nondiscrimination.”

In addition to the District, and led by attorneys general from New York and Illinois, the brief was also signed by attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.