Despite its vocal opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration earlier this year, Apple has not joined other tech companies in signing on to a new lawsuit looking to block a second version of the Trump’s executive order, Reuters reports. Apple is reportedly among 60 technology companies, including Google and Facebook, that appear to have decided against putting their weight behind this new lawsuit. A legal brief was filed in federal court in Hawaii earlier this week representing 58 technology companies in opposition to the second version of Trump’s executive order banning immigration, but this accounts for less than half of the 127 companies that signed on to a similar brief opposing the first executive order last month. Airbnb, Dropbox, and Kickstarter are reportedly among the companies that did sign the new brief, while other companies that are conspicuously absent the second time around include Microsoft, eBay, Intel, Netflix, and Twitter.
It is not yet clear why fewer companies signed on to the “friend-of-the-court” brief this time around, however it’s worth noting that companies still have an opportunity to join the effort as it proceeds through the court system, and according to brief co-author and New York lawyer Robert Atkins, they do “expect the group to expand.” For instance, Uber is apparently in the process of adding its name, and it seems unlikely that Apple’s stance on immigration has changed since the original executive order was issued in January, when Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees that he had made his opposition to the ban clear to the White House due to “the negative effect on our coworkers and our company.” Representatives of Apple and several other companies who have not signed on as of yet did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
