9th Circuit tells Hawaii no on travel ban

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed Hawaii’s attempt to challenge the rules created by President Donald Trump’s administration for its travel ban on citizens from six majority-Muslim countries.

Hawaii asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an order saying the government could not omit grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other relatives of someone in the U.S. from the list of people who can still travel to the country.

A three-judge panel said the 9th Circuit does not have jurisdiction to address the issue after the state appealed a federal judge’s decision to leave the government’s rules in place.

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson denied Hawaii’s request Thursday and said the question would be better posed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Watson put President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on hold in March, and the justices partially reinstated it last month.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Hawaii will do next. “We appreciate the 9th Circuit for ruling so quickly and will comply,” state Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement.

The justices said the president’s 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could be enforced, pending arguments set for October, if a visitor lacks a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”

AP/Telegraph Herald/EILEEN MESLAR Frank Fincel (right) sells corn Friday to Adam Dodds from his tent in the Tri-State Blind Society parking lot in Dubuque, Iowa.