Watching Chris Hayes in MSNBC right now. Reminded about the time I randomly met him in the first week of Trump presidency. In front of the federal court in Brooklyn as the ACLU argued the first Muslim Ban case. Late night & cold. Thousands of people outside chanting. Short story:

Was at JFK airport earlier doing legal volunteering & protesting. Had gotten home & was just getting ready to crawl into bed when I got word a Brooklyn judge was about to hear the first case arguing for an injunction of the policy. Bundled up & raced to the court 3 miles away.

I wanted to try to get into the courtroom to actually watch the argument. When I got there hundreds of people were already outside chanting. I worked my way to the front. I had clerked for two judges in the courthouse & knew the court officers. They weren’t letting people in yet.

Within 20 or so minutes, the hundreds of people outside had turned to thousands. It was freezing outside but the number of people was making it warm. The legal team was escorted inside. It was just a matter of time when the court officers were going to open the doors. Now recall:

The first week of the Trump presidency felt like it lasted years. We realized right away it was going to be worse than we had imagined. Twitter fury. Xenophobia. Racism. And the Muslim Ban. But there was RESISTANCE. Terrifying times, but incredible energy all over the country.

Back to courthouse. Finally the doors opened & the crowd crushed like a metal show. Tons of fellow protestors were making their way in as people called out “Press!” I was about to make my way in then realized: there was limited space. Press needed in. I started boxing people out.

I was literally grabbing people w/ press passes (remember @macfathom?) & pushing them forward & inside while holding non journalists back, screaming “Let press in!” People started getting it & within 5 minutes doors shut. I was outside. Honestly feeling a bit bummed but whatever.

I wasn’t really on Twitter at all then. Mostly a passive observer. But I noticed people were getting updates on their phone. @JackieVimo from @NILC was inside & was live tweeting. Then about 10 minutes after doors closed, some dude in a hoodie pushed to the front saying “press!”

The guy in the hoodie yelling “press!” gets up to the door & starts trying to get the court officers’ attention. I tell him to his back: “Hey man, they shut it down like 10 minutes ago.” He turns around and he looks familiar and I realize it’s none other than Chris Hayes.

I said “hey Chris” — like we were old friends — mentioned that there’s this immigration attorney live tweeting from inside. He asked what was going on. I updated him that arguments had started & seemed like it was going well. Judge Donnelly was asking the right questions. Then:

Then Jackie tweeted this: https://twitter.com/jackievimo/status/825520108646912000

And I screamed — THE STAY IS GRANTED!! THE STAY IS GRANTED!! Chris goes: “wait who is saying that?” “Jackie is. The immigration attorney inside.” “Can I see?” I hand him my phone. “Can I hold onto this for a minute?” “Course.” He immediately grabs his phone and dials into MSNBC.

Chris gets on the phone with a producer & then goes live via phone. I remember him saying something like: “Cannot fully confirm, but I’m standing outside the courthouse with some guys phone who is following this immigration attorney on Twitter who says the stay was granted.”

As news starts spreading outside the screams get louder and louder & it’s a damn celebration. We’re all jumping up and down. Hugging strangers. Chris is trying to report and clearly can’t hear a thing. The reporting ends, he hands me back my phone and thanks me with a smile.

I really believe Chris Hayes literally broke the damn story because he happened to show up late, got stuck outside standing next to me, I happened to get on twitter & follow @JackieVimo & handed him my phone. I gave him my biz card. And then got back to celebrating.

Epilogue to the story: ACLU lawyers emerged from that hearing like absolute rockstars. And I ended up in the opening sequence of the ACLU documentary The Fight.