The ongoing legal proceedings regarding President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration are walking on the edge of the justice system's rulebook, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy told Newsmax TV.
The judge in the case appears to have found a loophole of sorts, McCarthy told Wednesday's "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"Right around the time they were beginning to do this argument, the district judge put out a scheduling order for further proceedings," McCarthy said. "This is the judge whose order is being appealed, Judge [James L.] Robart, and the reason that's significant is there's a doctrine of law that says that you can't appeal a temporary injunction until it becomes a preliminary injunction.
"In other words, this order that the judge made was supposedly just a stop-gap measure until he gives them hearings on whether to put in a preliminary injunction."
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When asked to clarify what Robart's action was, McCarthy said it was a temporary injunction.
McCarthy guessed the court masked the true identity of the injunction by not putting an end date on the temporary injunction.
"Now they can say . . . Let it go back to Judge Robart and let him have further proceeding on it," McCarthy said. "The Ninth Circuit may find that attractive."
McCarthy added the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is "a very political, very left-leaning court."
The court heard oral arguments Tuesday but had yet to issue a ruling regarding Trump's temporary immigration halt from certain countries. The order also put a temporary stop to America's acceptance of refugees, while refugees from Syria would not be allowed into the U.S. indefinitely.
McCarthy is author of "The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America," available on Amazon.
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