The Attorney General of the state of Washington, Bob Ferguson, has received a great deal of attention recently after he filed the lawsuit that eventually led to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals halting President Trump’s immigration executive order. However, not everyone in the Evergreen State is exactly happy with their Attorney General for taking such a high profile stance against Donald Trump and a longtime Washington resident and lawyer is now filing court legal briefs in an attempt to ensure those voices are heard.
Attorney Harry Ries filed a Declaration in Opposition to Position Taken by State of Washington and in Continued Representation by Washington Attorney General last week in federal court. According to a copy of the court filing obtained by LawNewz, Ries filed the court document as “one of over one million, two hundred thousand Washington residents who voted for and supported, and still support, the Honorable Donald Trump, President of the United States.”
Ries’s court filing then criticizes the Washington AG’s complaint, saying that although it purports to be filed on behalf of the residents of Washington, he believes it was actually filed on behalf of major corporations and universities that are based in Washington state.
“[W]hile couched in terms of representing the State of Washington, [the AG’s lawsuit] is nothing more than a civil action on Microsoft and some of its employees, Amazon, Expedia, Starbucks, 230 college students, and some other unknown persons,” the court filing states.
It continues by alleging the AG’s actions violate the state’s prohibition against the attorney general from engaging in the private practice of law while in office. Reis also accuses the Washington state attorney general of trying to “force” everyone in the state to accept his own “politically motivated interpretation” of Trump’s executive order. As a result of the attorney general’s actions, Reis says he and others with views like his have been “labeled as deplorable, bigot, racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, fascist, Nazi, homophobic, uneducated, unintelligent, and poorly informed, as well as countless other disparaging terms . . . . ”
It is unlikely the courts will ever formally address any of the allegations contained in Reis’ court filing, but he surely recognized that would be the case having maintained his own legal practice in the state for close to 35-years. So it is probably safe to assume that Ries only filed the brief as his own sort of protest against the actions of the state attorney general.
Read the court filing HERE:
Declaration in Opposition by LawNewz on Scribd
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