Activist lawyers at JFK airport diner close up shop

In an airport diner, throngs of lawyers assembled to fight around the clock for detained immigrants and refugees who were blocked from entering the United States last month.

Central Diner, at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal A, was their home for the past week. But now, these teams of attorneys overseen by the American Civil Liberties Union are packing up their makeshift office, The New York Times reported Monday.

The next legal battle against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations heads to the courts for its next fight.

Speaking to Metro last week, corporate insurance attorney Priya Gandhi, 31, said she went to JFK because she “was dumbfounded for what was happening. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Gandhi, the daughter of Indian immigrants, said she felt particularly compelled to help refugees and their families who were subjected to intense interrogation.

“It reminds me of the civil rights movement, when lawyers were assembling,” Gandhi said. “The legal industry is very competitive, and you have people usually going into courtrooms and arguing with each other. To see them all working side by side, making a difference, it’s a beautiful thing to see.”

A federal judge in Seattle blocked Trump’s order with by issuing a temporary restraining order late Friday, which blocked nationwide implementation of key parts of the travel ban. An appeals judge in San Francisco had denied the Trump administration’s request for an immediate stay of that restraining order.

By 3 p.m. on Monday, the federal government must submit additional justification for Trump’s temporary restriction to the appeals court. From there, the case could head all the way to the Supreme Court.