Hawaii & Maryland Judges Block Trump’s Second Muslim Ban

Two federal judges, including one in Maryland, blocked the executive order, which was supposed to have taken effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

The most far-reaching ruling came from U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, who issued a blistering denunciation of the Trump administration’s defense of the ban.

Hawaii state had argued that the ban would harm tourism and the ability to recruit foreign students and workers, while in Maryland the plaintiffs argued it discriminated against Muslims and illegally reduced to number of refugees being accepted for resettlement in the US.

It further seeks to stop all refugees from coming to the USA for 120 days, and more than halves the number of asylum seekers who would be granted US entry this year.

Judge Watson was one of three federal judges across America that heard legal arguments on Wednesday.

The Trump administration’s first version of the likely unconstitutional Muslim ban was previously blocked by multiple federal judges, and one of the decisions was already unanimously upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. His decision was based largely on the fact that his first ruling specifically applied to the first executive order and “should not automatically extend” to the second.

Both rulings have resulted in a temporary halt on the ban, though Mr. Trump has vowed to take the case all the way to the US Supreme Court to get the ban reinstated. The states’ First Amendment claim has not been resolved. The ruling was reinforced by the Maryland judge, who suspended the section stopping visas to people from six mostly Muslim countries. “President Trump continues to believe that he and his administration are above the Constitution of the United States”.

The department has given little indication of how it will defend Trump’s revised ban. “It doesn’t draw any religious distinctions”.

The new order also exempts green card holders from the ban, as well as those who applied for a visa before the order went into effect.

Ferguson added that he would be working closely with other attorneys general, including Hawaii’s, resisting Trump’s new travel ban going forward.

The lawsuit is brought by several immigrant rights groups, including the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle.

Would a travel ban, as envisioned by Trump, make America safer?

He read the text of the prevailing law, which notes that the president can suspend immigration when “he or she” deems it necessary.

Robart said he would issue a written order, but he did not say when. The fresh order was challenged in the state of Hawaii by the Imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii Ismail Elshikh.

Government lawyers argued that the ban was substantially revised from an earlier version signed in January that was later blocked by a federal judge in Washington state.

Protestors rallied in February in Washington over the original travel ban.

Proponents of the ban say that the new order is needed to boost national security.

It applies only to new visas from Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen and temporarily shuts down the USA refugee program. Or do you think Trump’s comments from the campaign is irrelevant now?