Hawaii fi rst to try to block new travel order

A federal judge in Hawaii will hear arguments on whether to block President Donald Trump’s revised executive order barring the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslimmajority countries the day before the measure is to take effect.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson scheduled a hearing for March 15 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time to hear arguments on the state of Hawaii’s legal challenge to the order.

Hawaii was expected to ask Watson later Wednesday to immediately suspend the executive order.

The 38-page complaint asserts that the new executive order — much like the old — violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it is essentially a Muslim ban, hurts the ability of state businesses and universities to recruit top talent and damages the financial interests of the state, which considers tourism its lead economic driver.

“President Trump’s new Executive Order is antithetical to Hawaii’s State identity and spirit,” lawyers for the state wrote. “For many in Hawaii, including State officials, the Executive Order conjures up the memory of the Chinese Exclusion Acts and the imposition of martial law and Japanese internment after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.”

Trump’s new travel ban is substantially revised from its original version, and those who sue over it probably will have a harder time getting it immediately frozen by the courts. They will have to convince judges that there is an urgent need to do so.

The state of Washington successfully convinced a U.S. district judge and a three-judge appellate panel that economic harms imposed by Trump’s first ban presented a need to immediately order the measure suspended.

The new order reduces the list of affected countries from seven to six — removing Iraq while keeping Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Syria. It explicitly exempts legal permanent residents and current visa holders, blocking only the issuance of new visas for citizens of the affected countries for 90 days.

It also spells out a lengthy list of people who may be eligible for exceptions, including those previously admitted to the United States for “a continuous period of work, study, or other long-term activity”; those with “significant business or professional obligations”; and those seeking to visit or live with family.