Last night, 96 companies filed legal documents that object to President Trump’s Muslim ban. But they’re not just doing it because it’s the right thing to do. The filing makes it clear that Trump is disrupting business.
“The Order represents a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system of the United States for more than fifty years,” the amicus brief, filed by companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook states. “And the Order inflicts significant harm on American business, innovation, and growth as a result.”
The order was filed by a diverse array of tech companies like Twitter, Intel, Reddit, Netflix, Lyft, Kickstarter, PayPal, Microsoft, Yelp, Airbnb, Spotify, and Dropbox, just to name a few. But other non-tech companies like Levi’s, Warby Parker, and Chobani were also signatories. Some news stories appear to be reporting that 97 companies signed the brief, but Turn Inc. is listed in the filing twice. It’s 96.
Curiously, one company whose CEO has been an advisor to the Trump regime, was also on the list. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick pulled out of the business advisory council last week under pressure of a boycott.
“The Order makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S. companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world’s best employees. It disrupts ongoing business operations. And it threatens companies’ ability to attract talent, business, and investment to the United States,” the brief continues.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected President Trump’s request to reinstate the travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries over the weekend. This filing makes it clear that these companies consider the order incredibly disruptive to their business.
At the end of the day, it’s the uncertainty around the order that concerns these businesses most. Businesses, much like the stock market, hate uncertainty and volatility. They thrive on stability, and Trump’s disastrous roll out of the immigration order was anything but stable.
“The Order also introduces severe uncertainty into the immigration system,” the brief says. “If this approach were upheld, future orders might apply to any nation, and suddenly and unexpectedly bar its nationals from entering or returning to the United States. That severely undermines immigrants’ and businesses’ ability to make plans, conduct business, or manage any affairs involving non-citizens.”
Which companies aren’t on the list? Amazon is notably absent. And SpaceX and Tesla also didn’t sign. Elon Musk has taken heat recently for being a bit too cozy with the Trump regime. Unlike Kalanick, Musk has remained on Trump’s advisory council, telling critics that he can change things from the inside.
Update 3:20 pm: An Amazon spokesperson tells Gizmodo that the Attorney General preferred that the company not join the amicus since they’re listed as a witness in the original lawsuit.
Update 8:o0 pm: According to Reuters, SpaceX and Tesla have now joined the brief. “As soon we saw the brief this morning, we insisted on being added,” said Tesla in a (not entirely convincing) statement to Forbes.
https://gizmodo.com/heres-elon-musk-giving-donald-trump-a-stern-talking-to-1791966416
The complete list of companies that signed on to yesterday’s brief:
AdRoll
Aeris Communications
Airbnb
AltSchool
Ancestry.com
Appboy
Apple
AppNexus Inc.
Asana, Inc.
Atlassian Corp Plc
Autodesk
Automattic
Box
Brightcove
Brit + Co
CareZone
Castlight Health
Checkr
Chobani
Citrix Systems,
Cloudera
Cloudflare
Copia Institute
DocuSign
DoorDash
Dropbox
Dynatrace
eBay
Engine Advocacy
Etsy
Fastly
Foursquare Labs
Fuze
General Assembly
GitHub
Glassdoor
GoPro
Harmonic
Hipmunk
Indiegogo
Intel Corporation
JAND, Inc. d/b/a Warby Parker
Kargo Global
Kickstarter
KIND
Knotel
Levi Strauss & Co.
LinkedIn Corporation
Lithium Technologies, Inc.
Lyft
Mapbox
Maplebear Inc. d/b/a Instacart
Marin Software Incorporated
Medallia, Inc.
A Medium Corporation
Meetup, Inc.
Microsoft Corporation
Motivate International
Mozilla Corporation
Netflix
NETGEAR
NewsCred
Patreon
PayPal Holdings, Inc.
Quora
Rocket Fuel
SaaStr
Salesforce.com, Inc.
Scopely
Shutterstock
Snap
Spokeo
Spotify USA
Square
Squarespace
Strava
Stripe
SurveyMonkey
TaskRabbit
Tech:NYC
Thumbtack
Turn Inc.
Twilio
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Via
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Workday
Y Combinator Management, LLC
Yelp
Zynga
