THE federal judge in Hawaii who halted President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban has extended his order blocking the executive order.
The judge, United States District Court Judge Derrick Watson, made the decision to implement a longer-lasting halt on the travel ban — which was a revision on a first executive order that was defeated by a federal appeals court — just hours after hearing arguments on Wednesday, March 29.
The revised travel ban was to temporarily restrict U.S. travel from six predominantly-Muslim countries and suspend the U.S. refugee program.
Two weeks ago, the state of Hawaii sued to end the travel ban on the grounds that it violated the Constitution. The extension of the block will be in effect until the lawsuit is resolved; until then, the state sees this as a win for Muslim citizens in the United States after “repeated stops and starts of the last two months,” the state of Hawaii said in a statement.
Watson’s reasoning to extend the block coincides with his decision to implement the block two weeks ago: a precedent from the Supreme Court that used Trump’s rhetoric about Muslims during the presidential campaign to justify the unconstitutionality of the travel ban.
“The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has,” Watson wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
In his initial ruling that blocked the revised travel ban, Watson said that that the state of Hawaii displayed “a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their Establishment Clause claim, that irreparable injury is likely if the requested relief is not issued.”
The Establishment Clause falls under the First Amendment and it prohibits the government from passing laws that favor one religion over another. Watson argued that the executive order, by banning travel from Muslim-majority nations, deliberately disfavors Muslims.
In addition to allowing travel from the six Muslim countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), Watson’s order also stops the suspension of the refugee program, a program orchestrated by the State Department which protects refugees coming to the U.S. and assists in adjustment to life in the U.S.
In response to the ban, the Justice Department — on behalf of the Trump administration — asked the judge to narrow the ruling to involve only the part of the order that prohibits new visas for people in the banned countries.
“The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the federal district court’s ruling. The President’s executive order fails squarely within his lawful authority in seeking to protect our nation’s security, and the department will continue to defend this executive order in the courts,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department wrote in a statement. (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)