Legal challenges to Trump’s travel ban mount Same ban, different name
Legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban mounted Thursday as Washington state said it would renew its request to block the executive order.
It came a day after Hawaii launched its own lawsuit and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said both Oregon and New York had asked to join his state’s legal action. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, said the state is consolidating legal efforts and joining fellow states in challenging the revised travel ban.
Washington was the first state to sue over the original ban, which resulted in Judge James Robart in Seattle halting its implementation around the country. Ferguson said the state would ask Robart to rule that his temporary restraining order against the first ban applies to Trump’s revised action.
Trump’s revised ban bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries: Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program.
Unlike the initial order, the new one says current visa holders won’t be affected and removes language that would give priority to religious minorities.
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said Thursday that the state could not stay silent on Trump’s travel ban because of Hawaii’s unique culture and history. Hawaii depends heavily on tourism, and the revised ban
would hurt the state’s economy, he said.
Chin pointed out that the new travel ban order comes just after the 75th anniversary of the Feb. 19, 1942, executive order by President Franklin Roosevelt that sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during the Second World War. That order was put in place after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hawaii had an internment camp.
Ferguson said it’s not the government but the court that gets to decide whether the revised order is different enough that it would not be covered by previous temporary restraining order.
“It cannot be a game of whacka-mole for the court,” he said. “That (temporary restraining order) we’ve already obtained remains in effect.”
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday the administration believed the revised travel ban will stand up to legal scrutiny.
“We feel very confident with how that was crafted and the input that was given,” Spicer said.
Ferguson said he was pleased attorneys general from New York and Oregon had sought to take part in the legal action.
“We have a strong case and they are willing to join our efforts,” he said of his fellow Democrats. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement called the executive order “a Muslim ban by another name.”
In his initial lawsuit Ferguson said the original ban was unconstitutional and hurt the state’s businesses and universities.