Federal Judge Won’t Apply Stay To Revised Travel Ban

More than a half-dozen states are trying to derail the executive order affecting travelers from six Muslim-majority nations.

In Maryland, a federal judge set a hearing for Wednesday morning on a lawsuit brought by refugee aid groups.

While the Washington state lawsuit sits in legal limbo awaiting a responses from the government, the Hawaiian suit is progressing forward.The state sued last week, arguing that the ban harms its tourism industry, foreign students studying at Hawaiian universities, and its Muslim population.

Applying the Supreme Court’s decision in McCreary County v. ACLU-where the court looked at the history of events surrounding the visible display of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky courthouses-Judge Brinkema concluded that the EO was the outgrowth of Trump’s previously promised Muslim ban.

Ferguson and the other plaintiffs have asked Robart to schedule an emergency hearing for Wednesday, March 14 – two days before the slated implementation of the second travel ban – to decide whether to apply the stay to the updated executive order. OR joined that case Thursday, while NY and MA officials have indicated plans to do so soon.

The refugee rights groups are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center.

The judges have not indicated when they will rule, but it’s expected they will act quickly. The lawsuit is broader, but the ACLU expects a ruling on that part of the case even if other aspects of the ban are blocked elsewhere. The new order will take effect on March 16, with the White House allowing the 10-day delay to curtail the hurricane that followed the original.

With the wife and daughter yet to be given dates for their visa interviews, the family now feared that they would be caught by the enforcement of the second travel ban.

Washington is joined by four other states, Minnesota, New York and OR, and California, in its legal challenge.

Government lawyers say the new version removed provisions that “purportedly drew religious distinctions – erasing any doubt that national security, not religion, is the focus”. Pacific time (7:30 p.m. EST) in a lawsuit filed by the state of Washington against the president’s revised order, which will suspend the US refugee program and temporarily bar the issuance of new visas to citizens of six-Muslim majority countries. It drops excluding those who already went through all the hoops to gain visas.

To Muslims, including those victimised by or fighting against ISIS, it will send a message that reinforces the propaganda. that falsely claim the United States is at war with Islam. A federal judge in Seattle froze parts of the order February 3, and a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously upheld his ruling.

If no judge takes action to block the travel ban from taking effect, how the administration handles the case-by-case refugee waiver requests could potentially spell legal trouble down the road, Ms. Kim said.