Schneiderman: It’s just as illegal as 1st time

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S new travel ban is the same as his old travel ban, said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who’s teaming up with other states challenging the restrictions.

Schneiderman is seeking to join a lawsuit launched by attorneys general from several states, including Oregon, and Minnesota and led by Washington, which was the first state to sue over the original ban, resulting in its being halted by a federal judge in Seattle.

The action happened a day after Hawaii filed its own suit.

“President Trump’s latest executive order is a Muslim ban by another name, imposing policies and protocols that once again violate the Equal Protection Clause and Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

“As the Trump White House has already said, the administration’s latest Muslim ban seeks to accomplish the same unlawful and unconstitutional outcomes as the original order.”

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the states will ask Judge James Robart to rule that his temporary restraining order against the first ban applies to Trump’s revised action.

“Smart, aggressive litigation by state attorneys general and civil rights advocates across the country successfully torpedoed President Trump’s first Muslim ban, and I am pleased that as state AGs, we are now marshaling our resources to fight Trump’s latest, unconstitutional decree,” Schneiderman said.Last month, Schneiderman intervened in a Brooklyn Federal Court suit that challenged Trump’s original executive order.

That lawsuit involved Hameed Khalid Darweesh, an Iraqi translator, who had worked for the U.S. Army and was detained at Kennedy Airport for 18 hours after the travel ban went into effect.

The ban was unconstitutional and “fundamentally unAmerican,” said the state’s top lawyer. Brooklyn Federal Judge Carol Bagley Amon granted Schneiderman’s motion to intervene in the suit, Darweesh vs. Trump.

But in the wake of Trump’s new executive order, Schneiderman’s office sent a letter Thursday saying it decided not to keep up the fight in the Darweesh case.

The attorney general’s office will keep fighting for “individuals who were prevented from entering the United States . . . and may be continuing to suffer harm from that denial of entry,” wrote Lourdes Rosado, Schneiderman’s civil rights bureau chief.

Trump’s revised ban bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries: Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. Iraq was in the original ban.

The new order 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’s suit against the measure focuses on damage to the state’s economy and tourism.