DETROIT--The White House has refused to release a memo from a commission established by Rudolph Giuliani that was created with the express purpose of creating a legal rationale for the Muslim Ban. Under a federal court order, the memo was to be produced on Friday, but the Trump administration objected late Friday night, claiming, among other things, that a federal court cannot require the President to release documents.
The ACLU of Michigan—which challenged the ban in federal court along with the Arab American Civil Rights League—plans to return to court to compel production of the memo. The ACLU called on the White House to be transparent on the issue.
The following statement can be attributed to Miriam Aukerman, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Michigan:
“If, as the administration claims, the Executive Order is not a Muslim Ban, then why is the administration refusing to turn over the Giuliani memo? What is in that document that the government doesn’t want the court to see?”
The following statement can be attributed to Nabih H. Ayad, founder of the ACRL:
“The memo will help shed light on the intentions behind the President’s Executive Order. And if those intentions support the public statements that Mr. Giuliani made about looking for a legal explanation for a ban on Muslims, the court needs to know this.”
