Trump Muslim Ban Blocked Again

Trump Muslim Ban Blocked Again

A federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order Wednesday night blocking Trump’s ban on travel from 6 Muslim-majority countries, dealing yet another painful immigration defeat to the White House. The decision indicates that Mr. Trump’s bigoted words on the campaign trail against Muslims and immigrants will have serious consequences to his Presidency.

The ruling was the second major setback for Mr. Trump in his pursuit of a Muslim ban. His first attempt ended in Federal court last month, when a federal court in Seattle halted it. Mr. Trump issued a new, narrower travel ban, affecting six countries, on March 6, trying to satisfy the courts by removing some of the most controversial elements of the original version. The new version exempted key groups, like green card and visa holders, and dropped the section that would have given Christians special treatment. It also removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

However, the second executive order also preserved major components of the original. It would have ended, with few exceptions, the granting of new visas and green cards to people from six majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for at least 90 days. It would have also stopped all refugees from entering for 120 days and limited refugee admissions to 50,000 people in the current fiscal year.

Judge Derrick Watson’s decision repeatedly invoked Trump’s public comments. He wrote that a “reasonable, objective observer” would view even the new order as “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.” The Hawaii order was not a final ruling on the constitutionality of the ban.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly proposed to bar all Muslims from entering the United States. I believe his intent is clearly discriminatory, making much of his immigration agenda easily tied up in the federal courts and attacked as unconstitutional. We hope that the federal court system can continue to protect our nation from executive overreach and overt religious discrimination.