civil lawyers

-welcome back to the show. as we remind ourselves,with ever increasing panic, america is a country of laws. but what does that mean? well, it's supposedto mean this can't happen to legal residents. i was questioned extensivelyabout whether or not i knew of radical groups in sudan. i was asked to share mysocial media handles.

it was a veryuncomfortable pat down. i was touched in mychest and groin area, and then i washandcuffed briefly. at that moment ifelt like, ok, i'm probably going to get deported. she's a green card holderwho went to harvard. but then again, trump'swhole political career was built on demandingto see papers from harvardeducated black people

with foreign sounding names. part of the reason el-aminis able to get back to her american dream ofta-ing too many classes is that thousands oflawyers swooped in to help people like her for free. almost as if they didn'thave saturday night plans. i talked to one of theseheroic freedom nerds about exactly howscared we should be. (sam voiceover) president trump'smuslim ban drove me

back to my favoriteplace in new york city for what was not supposedto be a recurring segment. hey, julie d.(voiceover) bunker talk. i sat down with the aclu'slee gelernt, who's a-- civil rights lawyer. samantha (voiceover): doinghis best atticus finch, lee spent his saturday arguingagainst the muslim ban in federal court as key counsel. i figured he'd beable to set the scene.

what the fuck is going on? lee, help me. we find out on friday night,four hours after he signed the ban, people arearriving, and they're not being let through. these are people who were givenlawful permission to come here. so, you get on yourplane, you pop an ambien, you have a glass of wine, andyou arrive at jfk to find out that america has disappeared.

exactly. samantha (voiceover):this doctor from cleveland, thislittle boy, and this kid with cancer were alldenied entry to the us. thankfully, hunchedover lawyers like these dropped everything, camping outat airports around the country to help. if you're a civilrights lawyer, you have to react quicklyin a time like this.

so, lee, you get the call,and you were like, this is the shit i was born to do. right. you scramble to try and getsomeone from the administration on the phone. they're completelyunorganized, or they're not taking our calls. we say, let's fileemergency state papers in the federalcourt, and the judge

was very directwith the government and said, tell me why youneed, right now, to send these people back to harm. tell me what the risk isto the government, given that these people have beenvetted for months and months by our government. some even workedwith our us military. samantha (voiceover):like hamid darwish, who was an interpreterfor the 101st airborne

division in iraq. how did the administrationjustify barring this american-adjacenthero, who has undoubtedly saved countless american lives? the government came in andsaid, the president wants this, and he should beallowed to do it. so it sounds like thecase that the government was trying to make wasalong the lines of-- but i want it!

but you said if i waspresident, i could have it. this sucks so much.awful. i hate this. and your counter-argument was-- we said, that's the waythe constitution works. sorry. samantha (voiceover):and lee won. sort of. the judge said, i amblocking this nationwide,

and give the plaintiffs a listof all the people nationwide who were detained. samantha (voiceover):lee and the aclu were granted a stay, pausingthe executive order, which was poorly written, and probablysigned without consultation by--[mumbling]? i don't know,there's too many m's. it feels likethey've overstepped so far that evenwhen they step back,

they're still way off the cliff. mhm. and that may be their strategy. even the pushback keepsus well beyond anything any other administrationhas ever done. and they are pushing thelimits of the constitution beyond the breaking point. so now would be agreat time for all those conservatives who aregay for the constitution

to stand the fuck up? we hope that happens,because we're talking about the firsttime in the history where the president said,i'm going to discriminate between religions. i don't eventhink the president has read the constitution. because he can't. samantha (voiceover):but lee sure can.

which specific partsof the constitution have been violated? do we have a long time? samantha (voiceover):not really. it's the first, fourth,and fifth amendments. right, congress? ah, i forgot tomention congress. congress should bea check, and i think we're starting to see that.

you know, i think itremains to be seen what congress is going to do. o my god. those cucks? nothing. [clucking] and what happenswhen federal agencies don't uphold federal court orders? we are trying to find out. one of the problemsis the government's

not sharing information. we have heard peoplewere sent back. we don't know if it was rightbefore the stay, right after. what could happen if theydon't comply with this order? if they continuenot to comply, then i think the court willreally press them, but at the end ofthe day, the court always has the power to holdthe administration in contempt. tell me about the stakes here.

if a government agencyintentionally did not listen to a federal courtorder, that is as serious as you can get in america. what are the oddsthat this is really just a last ditch effort toavoid actually being president? because i really feellike he is sprinting toward impeachment here. samantha (voiceover):and lawyers like lee will be nipping at hisheels the entire way.

i love you. i love the work you're doing. i think it's reallyimportant, but i really want you to take this in. lee, if you come at theking, you best not miss. understand? got it. bunker talk is fun. we'll be right back.