University Leadership Unite in Opposition to Executive Order Travel Ban

31 of the top universities in the United States joined forces and filed an amicus brief challenging the Trump administration’s revised travel ban. Although the new version of the Executive Order only bars people from six specific Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., universities are already seeing negative effects on their campuses. As stated in the briefing, filed on March 31, the Executive Order threatens universities’ ability to attract top talent and to educate tomorrow’s leaders, and is hindering international student applications.Universities agree that the timing of the new travel restrictions comes at a critical time in the school year’s application season. Accepted students may not be able to obtain visas on time and could chose other study destinations. Moreover, prospective visiting faculty and scholars are also impacted. According to amici: “many admissions letters for fall of 2017 have been sent out in the past month, and prospective international students have a short window to decide whether to attend a United States college or university.”As per the Mitchell Hamline School of Law definition, an amicus brief is a “legal document filed in appellate court cases by non-litigants with a strong interest in the subject matter. The briefs advise the court of relevant, additional information or arguments that the court might wish to consider.” This briefing was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit of Maryland, which will hear oral arguments in May.Read the full brief here and see below for a list of the signee universities:Boston   University,   Brandeis   University,   Brown   University, Bucknell University, Carnegie   Mellon   University,   Case   Western   Reserve   University,   Columbia  University,  Cornell  University,  Dartmouth  College,  Duke  University,  Emory   University,   George   Washington   University,   Georgetown   niversity,   Harvard   University,   Johns   Hopkins   University,   Massachusetts   Institute   of   Technology, Middlebury    College, Northeastern    University, Northwestern University,  Princeton  University,  Rice  University,  Stanford  University,  Tufts University, University   of   Chicago,   University   of   Michigan,  University   of   Pennsylvania, University    of    Southern    California,    Vanderbilt    University,    Washington  University, Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  and  Yale  University