Travel ban likely returning to high court
WASHINGTON — One week after the U.S. Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a victory by dismissing a challenge to its revised temporary travel ban, a federal judge in Hawaii largely halted a third, indefinite travel ban just hours before it was set to go into effect, ensuring that the issue would return to the nation’s highest court.
And when it gets there, President Trump’s Twitter feed will likely be a prime exhibit.
In his ruling blocking the part of the third travel ban announced by the administration, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson wrote that the order “plainly discriminates based on nationality,” “improperly uses nationality as a proxy for risk,” and that it “lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States,’” as the government argued.
The injunction applies only to those entering from the six Muslim-majority countries under the order: Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Chad. The sections barring North Korean nationals and some entrants from Venezuela was not part of the challenge brought by Hawaii and other states.
But, in recounting the history of the challenges to the previous versions of the travel ban and court orders halting them, Watson wrote that the rationale behind the order — that it’s really an attempt to make good on the president’s campaign promise of a Muslim ban — “has only gotten worse.”
And he pointed to several of Trump’s tweets from June as proof.
“People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!” Trump tweeted then.
“That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people!”
The White House called Watson’s order, which applies nationwide, a “dangerously flawed” ruling that “undercuts the president’s efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States.”
The Justice Department vowed a quick appeal, a move that all but ensures a return to the Supreme Court, and a high court review of the president’s tweets.