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A federal judge blocked Trump’s latest attempt at a travel ban

A Hawaii federal judge has issued a new temporary restraining order, blocking the third version of President Trump’s travel ban, Politico reports. “Although national security interests are legitimate objectives of the highest order, they cannot justify the public’s harms when the President has wielded his authority unlawfully,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson in his … Continue reading “A federal judge blocked Trump’s latest attempt at a travel ban”

A Hawaii federal judge has issued a new temporary restraining order, blocking the third version of President Trump’s travel ban, Politico reports. “Although national security interests are legitimate objectives of the highest order, they cannot justify the public’s harms when the President has wielded his authority unlawfully,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson in his Tuesday ruling. The new ban was set to go into effect at midnight.

Judge Watson’s restraining order, which was sought by the state of Hawaii, a local Muslim cleric and others, relies heavily on the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the previous version of the controversial immigration policy. In its current form, the travel order was to restrict travel by citizens of eight countries, six of which are majority Muslim—Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia, and Yemen.

Judge Watson’s ruling didn’t focus on the Muslim issue. Instead, he wrote,

“Ignoring the guidance afforded by the Ninth Circuit that at least this Court is obligated to follow, EO-3 suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: 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,’ a precondition that the Ninth Circuit determined must be satisfied before the Executive may properly invoke Section 1182(f) [a section of immigration law that allows the president to impose some immigration restrictions]. And EO-3 plainly discriminates based on nationality in the manner that the Ninth Circuit has found antithetical to both [a nondiscrimination provision in immigration law] and the founding principles of this Nation.”