Five states—unsurprisingly, none of which voted for him last November—are openly rejecting President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban executive order.
Hawaii is the first to sue under the new ban, while the states of Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Washington have requested injunctions in existing lawsuits filed after the original immigration and travel ban executive orders were issued in January. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he would seek to have the current injunction against the original orders applied to the new order.
“We’re asserting that the president cannot unilaterally declare himself free of the court’s restraining order and injunction,” he said. “This is not a new lawsuit.
“It’s our view that that temporary restraining order that we’ve already obtained remains in effect. And the burden is on the federal government to explain why it does not.”
Minnesota was part of that original legal effort and Oregon and New York are expected to join in as well. The challenge, constitutionally and legally, to this order is going to be much steeper because it does not apply to legal aliens and green card holders outside the country, and it does not carve out any protections for Christian minorities.
All of those moves were made to avoid a protracted court battle. But given the number of liberal activist judges in the federal court system—particularly the 9th Circuit that includes Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii—the Trump administration is likely to have a fight no matter what it does.
With Attorney General Jeff Sessions now in place, it’s far more likely the Department of Justice will put up a more rigorous defense of the order as well. {eoa}
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