Democracy and the Rule of Law Part 5: Chaos at the Airport

What you are about to hear is one of my favorite clips from one of my favorite interviews. It provides a glimpse into events that rapidly unfolded during the evening of Saturday, January 28, 2017, when an Executive Order signed by the new President resulted in the detention of hundreds of travelers who were peacefully and legally entering the United States from several Muslim-majority countries. 

My guest on the podcast, Boston lawyer Susan Finegan, was one of the attorneys who quickly sprang into action as word came through of the Muslim travel ban and the resulting detentions that were taking place at Logan International Airport. The extraordinary events of that Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning signified the beginning of four years of cruelty and chaos ushered in by an Administration that too often demonstrated little regard for the Rule of Law. I offer it as a small reminder of what is at stake at this important moment of our nation’s history. 

As usual, you can find the full episode of my interview of Sue Finegan on the Higher Callings website and other podcast platforms.

Transcript

Excerpts from an Interview with Boston Attorney Susan M. Finegan

Full Interview Published March 4, 2023

Don: Sue Finnegan, good morning. 

Sue: Good morning. How are you? 

Don: I'm fine, thank you. Thanks for joining me today. When I think about pro bono lawyers in Boston, you're always the first person to come to mind. 

Sue: Oh, well, thank you. It's nice to be speaking with you this morning. 

Don: Yeah, no, I'm really excited about it.

You and your firm have quite a tradition of pro bono. And just to introduce you briefly, you're at Mintz, a well-known law firm in Boston. And you are a full-time pro bono lawyer there, chairing the pro bono work that Mintz and many of its attorneys do. We'll talk a little bit about that as we go along.

I wanted to start out just setting the scene with what was really an extraordinary event that I got to witness a glimpse of in 2017. So let me set the stage and then I'll turn it over to you to talk about what happened at the point where I leave off. 

The Boston Bar Foundation holds an annual gala called the Adams Benefit, named after John and Abigail Adams, because this is Boston, after all. This is the charitable arm of the Boston Bar Association. It raises a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars every year at this one event, which then is part of the money that the foundation distributes to various legal services and charitable organizations throughout the Boston area that really come to depend in part on the funds that are raised. 

So, it's a black-tie event. Men are there in their tuxedos. Women are there in their gowns. There is a VIP event as part of it at the very beginning. In a room upstairs there's a gallery with paintings by really famous historical artists. It's really a wonderful place within the Museum of Fine Arts. I think I left that out. The event is held at the Museum of Fine Arts. It's usually on the coldest day of the winter, on a Saturday night. And it used to take place every year at the end of January, like the last weekend of January.

So, in 2017, as usual, my wife and I attended the event, including that VIP event where there's recognition of a leader in the legal community in pro bono or other charitable legal work. And there were probably up to 100 lawyers and their partners in that room as is true all the time. And people are milling around. They're enjoying themselves. They're having cocktails. They're having hors d'oeuvres. And again, people are dressed to the nines. 

And all of a sudden at this event in that particular year I saw a group of lawyers suddenly huddling off to the side in a very agitated state, like something was happening that had a great deal of urgency. You, I believe, I'm quite sure, were one of those lawyers. And then after a lot of animated conversation among that small group, a number of you suddenly left the event. I didn't know where you were going at first. I think I asked somebody, "What's happening? Where are you going?" And what I learned was that our new President, number 45, had just issued an immediate travel ban for people trying to immigrate from certain countries into the United States.

And you all left to go immediately to Logan Airport where people were coming in from other countries and were being detained because of this travel ban. With no notice. It was just a very sudden thing, really an extraordinary thing, and of course a disruption for those of you who went. But that's all I knew until I learned more about it later.

Tell us what happened that night. 

Sue: Yeah, it was really an extraordinary evening. Throughout the day, actually, just to back up a bit, I had been getting phone calls from immigration advocates, in particular Susan Church, who is the President of the Immigration Bar in New England. She had highlighted that most likely there would be something happening at the airport that night that would necessitate people going into court.

And at the time I didn't really believe her. You know, it's not something that you think about on a Saturday while you're getting ready to go to an event or you're going on about your business. And she had called several people at the same time. And so I continued on. I didn't really think that anything like that would happen on a Saturday evening.

And sure enough she called, I think it was about 8:00 at night. She called and said, "You have to get over to the airport immediately." That planes are starting to arrive from overseas and there are two people in particular who are impacted by this Muslim travel ban. And the two people that were impacted were actually professors at the University of Massachusetts and they were impacted and they were detained.

And so, she said, "You have to immediately come over to the airport." So I went over with a group of three people and we dropped everything. And as you said, it was freezing out. I don't know why we thought to not bring our coats, but we thought it was so urgent that we couldn't even wait in line to get our coats or get our car and just jumped in an Uber over to the airport.

Don: And so you showed up in the airport, again, in your formal clothing. 

Sue: Exactly. And everyone's kind of looking at us. But there were a lot of people protesting. It was an incredible event. And while I was there, because it was so chaotic, we decided to go to the court. And they opened the court for us, the federal court for us that night. And it was probably by that point, it was about 9:30 or 10:00.

Don: How do you make that happen? I know there's usually an emergency judge assigned all the time. 

Sue: I think that, honestly, I think Susan Church actually made some phone calls. And they opened up the court. And there were two emergency judges that came in, one a magistrate judge, another a federal district court judge, and they decided to sit en banc. And since it was such an extraordinary situation, Judge Burroughs said, "Two heads are better than one, and so we'll both sit en banc and figure out what to do."

And Matt Segal from ACLU came in from his house, and he had a template that was being used across the country by the ACLU in these lawsuits. And sure enough, there was an argument that was held, and we were all doing research on our phones, and by 2:45 in the morning we got the order that we had hoped to get.

Don: Who was there arguing on the other side for the government? 

Sue: Well, the immigration AUSA was there, but unfortunately, or I guess, interestingly, when former President Trump enacted this, he hadn't really spoken to DOJ, and he hadn't really given them the heads up that this was going to go out. And so I think across the country, much like in Boston, none of the AUSAs knew what to do, like they had no guidance from DOJ how to respond. And so it was a really tricky time because he didn't know what to say because he was surprised as well. 

So we were able to get actually that night the broadest interpretation of the injunction of anywhere else in the country. And so throughout the next week where all of these cases were playing out many people who were stranded in other parts of the world were coming in through Logan to try to get access to the country.

Don: What happened to the two professors? 

Sue: They ended up getting out of detention. So it was kind of tricky. We were trying to get in there before, so it would still be a relevant case, and so we ended up filing the case in short order and they ended up getting out of detention, thankfully.

We argued to the judge that this is an act that could be repeated and subject to the same kind of treatment. And so that resonated with the judges and they were able to give us this pretty broad injunction, at least for the week that it was pending.

So it was an extraordinary time. And it just showed, I think, the power of the law, and in kind of an unusual way, too, like on a Saturday evening, to be able to file something against the President of the United States and having people come together from all walks of life. People were at different, events. Some people were at the Adams Ball, some people were at birthday parties, some people were just spending time at home, some people were hiking, and everyone showed up at the court in different stages of dress, should I say. No one appropriate for court, really, but. 

Don: Right. 

Sue: But that's okay. 

Don: Appropriate for court on a cold Saturday night. 

Sue: Exactly. The judges were, because they were wearing their robes, of course, but other than that . . . . 

Don: Now, remind me, what happened to the travel ban after that? 

Sue: Well, so what happened was we had a hearing in court in front of a different judge. It was reassigned. And we didn't prevail on that secondary hearing, at least in Massachusetts. But it ended up getting litigated throughout the United States. And then President Trump kept changing it because the original one that was drafted was just so overly broad and discriminatory, and it was pretty easy to find that it was in violation of the Constitution.

Eventually it made it all the way up to the Supreme Court, but that was a different draft of the travel ban by that point. But it was an exciting and a sleep-deprived week while it was pending in court that week. 

Don: Yeah, I'll always remember that. Just the little glimpse of it I got at the very beginning at the Adams benefit. It's hopefully something that will never happen again during one of those events. 

Sue: In fact, I ended up, when I came home that evening, of course I hadn't eaten anything, because we were going to the event and we had to immediately leave. And as I was having my dinner at three o'clock in the morning, I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, I just sued the President and prevailed," and like, "What's going to happen? That's a crazy situation.” 

Don: You really put into effect what the Boston Bar Foundation stands for too. I mean, here you were providing free legal services to people who needed something immediately done on an issue of civil rights.

Sue: Yeah, that's exactly right. It was really crazy and a remarkable time and I was just glad to get the phone call and be able to serve and go to the court that night.