iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — President Trump’s controversial executive order to temporarily ban travel to the U.S. by refugees and immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries has sparked protests across the nation, as well as legal challenges that are still working their way through the court system.

Here’s a recap of how the executive order and the subsequent legal challenges against it were rolled out:

Friday, Jan. 27
At 4:39 p.m. on Friday at the Pentagon, Trump signed an executive order that promised to keep “radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”

The order, named “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” took immediate effect to bar admission to the U.S. of all people with non-immigrant or immigrant visas from seven countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for 90 days. It also bars entry to all refugees from anywhere in the world for 120 days, and places an indefinite ban on refugees from war-torn Syria.

Hours after Trump signed his order, the public had not yet seen documents that would describe exactly how airports and government officials around the world would implement the new rules.

At 6:58 p.m., the order was distributed to the White House press list.

Saturday, Jan. 28
Two brothers with Iraqi visas, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq, landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City overnight. The Department of Homeland Security immediately detained the two men, following the guidance of Trump’s executive order.

The two men worked for the United States military in Iraq and were granted special visas as a result of their service, but despite going through the standard security checks, they were held by Customs and Border Protection at the airport. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a writ of habeas corpus at the Brooklyn Federal Court on their behalf.

At 7 p.m. on Saturday night, Customs and Border Protection released the men.

Throughout the day, though, outrage brewed in airports across the country where people gathered to protest the executive order. “Hey ho! Muslim ban has got to go!” some of the protesters chanted.
People interpreted Trump’s immigration order as a ban on people of the Muslim faith. Trump, appearing at another executive order signing in the Oval Office, disagreed.

“It’s not a Muslim ban,” he said, adding that “in the airports, it’s working out very nicely.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of refugees and immigrants — caught in communications limbo between the White House and the Department of Homeland Security — remained at airports from coast to coast.

On Saturday night, Judge Ann Donnelly of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn ruled that people stuck in airports nationwide could not be forced back to their original destinations, writing that individuals subjected to the order could face “substantial and irreparable injury.”

Sunday, Jan. 29
On Sunday morning, the White House faced backlash from politicians on both sides of the aisle. Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham called the executive order a “self-inflicted wound” that “may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, teared up as he demanded Trump to rescind the “mean spirited and un-American” order.

Federal lawsuits were filed in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington on behalf of travelers who were detained in airports in the United States. In airports overseas, many people hoping to come to the United States were turned away.

As public outcry amplified, the White House still appeared to be working out details of the executive order. On “Meet the Press,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said that the order did not apply to green card holders, adding to the confusion.

Despite the stay issued in Brooklyn Federal Court, the White House maintained that the order remained in place.

“It is the right and duty of the President to do everything in his legal and Constitutional power to protect the American people. Saturday’s ruling does not undercut the President’s executive order,” the White House said in a statement. “All stopped visas will remain stopped. All halted admissions will remain halted. All restricted travel will remain prohibited. The executive order is a vital action toward strengthening America’s borders, and therefore sovereignty. The order remains in place.”

Later Sunday evening, the White House said that “legal permanent residents are exempt from the travel restrictions in the new executive order,” referring to green card holders.

Monday, Jan. 30
Trump tweeted on Monday morning, “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,…”

He continued in another tweet, “protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”

On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders sounded exasperated by the executive order’s haphazard roll-out and the administration’s lack of communication between major agencies.

“It should have been vetted by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and all of the affected agencies. I think then a lot of the obvious problems with it would have been identified,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Seattle citing examples of residents impacted by the ban. The lawsuit included a separate emergency motion for a nationwide, temporary restraining order that would bar the enforcement of parts of Trump’s executive order.

Friday, Feb. 3
U.S. Federal District Judge James Robart issued a restraining order on Friday to immediately halt Trump’s executive order nationwide, allowing travel to proceed as it did before the executive order was enacted.
The same day, Hawaii filed a lawsuit asking the court to block implementation of the executive order.

Saturday, Feb. 4
Late on Saturday, the Department of Justice filed an appeal to Judge Robart’s restraining order with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The Trump administration argued that the president is acting within his authority and that the ruling by Robart “second-guesses the President’s national security judgment.”

Sunday, Feb. 5
Early Sunday morning, the Ninth Circuit Court rejected the Justice Department’s request for an emergency stay on the restraining order. The court asked for briefings from both parties to be filed on Monday by 6 p.m. before it makes a decision on the case.

Monday, Feb. 6
In a brief filed on Monday morning, Washington state and Minnesota argued that the executive order causes “irreparable harm” to businesses, schools, family relations and state residents’ freedom to travel and is unconstitutional because it discriminates on the basis of religion. Fifteen other states joined in support of Minnesota and Washington, along with leaders of the tech world from Google, Facebook and Apple, in addition to the ACLU.

The Department of Justice, in a brief filed just before the 6 p.m. deadline, said the travel restrictions are a matter of national security and the administration was excluding people from countries with ties to terrorism, not people of a certain religion.

Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and John Kerry joined former national security and foreign affairs officials, including Leon Panetta, Janet Napolitano, Lisa Monaco and Michael Hayden, and wrote a declaration to the appeals court that “there is no national security purpose for a total bar on entry for aliens from the seven named countries,” adding that as a national security issue, the executive order was “ill-conceived, poorly implemented, ill-explained.”

Tuesday, Feb. 7
On Tuesday evening, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments from Justice Department lawyers and attorneys for the states of Washington and Minnesota. The hearing allowed each side to give 30-minute arguments.

After listening to both sides, the three federal judges — Judge William C. Canby Jr., appointed by President Jimmy Carter, Judge Michelle Friedland, appointed by President Barack Obama, and Judge Richard R. Clifton, appointed by President George W. Bush — will decide the fate of Trump’s travel ban.

Thursday, February 9
On Thursday evening, those three federal judges unanimously ruled to deny the Department of Justice’s bid for an emergency stay.

In its unanimous decision, the judicial panel indicated that President Trump’s remarks on the campaign trail about implementing a ban on Muslims entering the United States if he was elected was a factor in their decision.

The judges also held that the government failed to provide evidence that nationals from the seven affected countries had carried out attacks on U.S. soil. “We hold that the Government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,” the panel, from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in the decision Thursday. Department of Justice lawyers argued that the order was made on national security grounds and that Washington District Court Judge James Robart’s issuance of a temporary restraining order pausing the ban nationwide was “overbroad.”

Following the decision of the 9th Circuit Court, the Department of Justice issued a statement saying they are “reviewing the decision and considering its options.” They have no further comment at this time.

In brief remarks to a small group of reporters waiting outside White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s office, President Trump called the 9th Circuit’s ruling a “political decision” and said he looks forward to challenging the ruling in court. President Trump cautioned that he was concerned about the security of the nation, yet he was confident in his administration’s case. “We’ll win the case,” he said. “We have a situation where the security of our country is at stake, and it’s a very, very serious situation and so we look forward, as I just said, to seeing them in court,” the president said.

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