An early report said she insisted a civil servant stayed up all night trying to get a Court of Appeal decision about passengers that were about to leave on that ship the next day overturned. Undoubtedly the legal advice would have been "this is the end of the line for now, you can argue the issue at a full hearing later, but you cannot reverse this decison about what happens tomorrow". So basically, asking for the impossible and wasting everyone's time.
As to changing the law, that follows. I think I made the point up-thread, ministers can try to change the law (though they may need to ask Parliament first), but until they do, civil servants can, indeed should, object to doing things that are at that time unlawful.