Noah Feldman, Columnist

Court's Message to Trump: We Won't Back Down

The executive order on immigration will remain on hold while it's under judicial review.

February 10, 2017 at 1:26 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upholding a nationwide freeze on Donald Trump’s immigration executive order is a powerful rebuff to the administration -- and to the president personally.

The court went out of its way in its opinion released Thursday to emphasize the right and the duty of the judiciary to rule on the constitutionality of executive action, even when national security is on the line. The unanimous panel was unwilling to bow to the personal pressure that Trump aimed at it. And, tellingly, the most important recent precedents the court cited were written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote will be crucial if and when the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.