Bob Ferguson, the State of Washington Attorney General who has taken a central role in fighting Donald Trump’s immigration travel ban, is an expert chess player.
Literally.
Ferguson, a Democrat in his second term as AG, has become a powerful voice against the ban after launching the legal effort that led to it being temporarily halted. Ferguson and the state’s Solicitor General Noah Purcell are working together on the effort.
“A president can not have unchecked powers,” Ferguson said.
A Seattle judge, James Robart, sided with Ferguson, at least temporarily, by issuing a temporary restraining order halting the ban nationwide until he can rule on the merits of Ferguson’s quest to permanently invalidate the ban. Washington was the first state to sue Trump over the executive order, alleging it’s unconstitutional.
On February 9, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, sided with Robart, keeping the temporary restraining order in place. The case is almost certainly destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump tweeted his reaction in caps: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
Who is Ferguson, the man who started that chain of events?
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Ferguson, the Married Father of Twins, Is an ‘Internationally-Rated Chess Master’
Ferguson (born Robert Ferguson) knows a thing or two about strategy, and he’s going to need it playing a role in this high-stakes political and legal drama.
“Bob is an internationally-rated chess master. His games have appeared in local, national and international chess publications. Bob has twice won the Washington State Chess Championship,” his Attorney General biography says.
Ferguson is married to Colleen, and they have 8-year-old twins, Jack and Katie. Ferguson writes about his children on social media, such as when he took his daughter to a father/daughter dance.
He also posts photos with his son, Jack.
The family lives in North Seattle, according to his bio.
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2. Ferguson, a Democrat, Moved at Such Rapid Speed to Challenge the Ban That He Compared It to Playing Professional Chess
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Ferguson greets people outside the courthouse after a press conference at the U.S. District Court, Western Washington, on February 3, 2017 in Seattle, Washington. (Getty)
Ferguson moved in swift opposition to Trump’s immigration executive order, which took the country by surprise when it temporarily banned immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, and indefinitely banned it from Syria. Critics have called it a “Muslim ban,” a term that Trump rejects, arguing that most of the world’s Muslims are still allowed in the United States. Trump has said the ban is necessary to protect the United States from radical Islamic terrorism.
According to NPR, Ferguson took only 72 hours to draft a lawsuit “and rounded up declarations of support from Washington-based companies like Amazon and Expedia.”
“Ferguson compared the pace to his time on the professional chess circuit in Europe playing under the clock,” NPR reported, quoting Ferguson as saying, “When constitutional rights are involved you have to be willing to move quickly and play in that ‘time trouble’ as a lawyer; that’s what our team is doing.”
On Facebook, in 2010, Ferguson wrote of Hillary Clinton: “Happy birthday to our next president Hillary Clinton!”
3. Ferguson Has Been Described as Having a “Harry Potter-Like’ Quality
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Ferguson giving a press conference relating to the ban. (Getty)
A supporter of Ferguson’s described the 51-year-old Washington Attorney General as having a “Harry Potter-like quality,” due to “the glasses, the serious intent and the sense of almost destiny in standing up for what’s right and the little guy,” NPR reported.
On Facebook, Ferguson often posts photos with his family, and he has also posted photos with Barack Obama.
4. Ferguson Enjoys Mountain Climbing & Bird Watching in His Spare Time
According to his bio, Ferguson “is a fourth-generation Washingtonian.”
“His family homesteaded on the beautiful Skagit River, which may explain why Bob is such an enthusiastic mountain climber, backpacker, and birder,” the bio says.
His campaign website says his grandparents ran the local meat market, his mother was a school teacher, and his father worked for Boeing.
It adds that Ferguson has “hiked hundreds of miles of Washington trails and climbed many of the state’s highest peaks.”
5. Ferguson Attended Law School in New York & Was on the County Council
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(Getty)
Ferguson received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1995, the bio says, and his B.A. in political science from the University of Washington, where he was student body president.
He “began his legal career in Spokane where he served as a law clerk for Chief Judge W. Fremming Nielsen of the Federal District Court for Eastern Washington,” the bio continues. “He then clerked for Judge Myron Bright of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Midwest. Ferguson returned to Seattle and joined Preston, Gates, and Ellis (now K&L Gates), one of Washington’s leading law firms.”
In 2003, Ferguson was elected to the King County Council, defeating a 20-year incumbent. His bio says he split with his party to support reducing the size of the council, even though it resulted in the elimination of his own seat. He then ran again for the Council and was elected again to it, the bio says.
In 2012, Ferguson was elected state Attorney General. He was re-elected to his second term in 2016.