Microsoft and Amazon Are Teaming Up to Fight Trump's Muslim Ban
There is a growing movement in the tech industry.
Some of the biggest names in tech are teaming up to support legal action against president Trump’s executive order that restricts immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Microsoft, Amazon, and Expedia plan to support a federal court suit filed by Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson, announced Monday, that asks the district court for the western district of Washington to declare parts of Trump’s executive order as unconstitutional. GitHub, which is looking to bring Google and Netflix along to a Tuesday meeting, may decide to join their efforts.
“No one is above the law — not even the President,” Ferguson said in a statement published Monday. “And in the courtroom, it is not the loudest voice that prevails. It’s the Constitution.”
The suit argues that Trump’s order violates the first amendment’s establishment clause, the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, the right of individuals to due process and that it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. Microsoft spokesperson Pete Wootton said in a statement released Monday that it would provide information about how the effect the order would have “in order to be supportive. And we’d be happy to testify further if needed.”
At the same time, GitHub has organized a tech company meeting to explore the possibility of filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit against Trump’s executive order. Google, Netflix, Dropbox, Reddit, and Airbnb are among some of the companies that have been invited to the Tuesday meeting. It’s not certain which case the group will support: alongside the Washington state case, there was another case filed the same day by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the district court for the eastern district of Virginia.
Not everyone in the tech world is taking the same approach against the ban. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who both sit on Trump’s strategic and policy forum, have been criticized for what was perceived as a lackluster response to the order. On Sunday, Musk asked Twitter followers to read the executive order and suggest specific amendments that he could present to the president. Scott Hartsman, CEO of game developer Trion Worlds, noted that the administration is ignoring the stays granted in federal court.
Uber was criticized for switching off surge pricing on Saturday around JFK airport, where taxi workers were striking to protest the ban. The move, seen as an attempt to break the strike, led to a #DeleteUber” hashtag, which subsequently led to competitor Lyft moving up the download rankings in Apple’s iOS App Store.
