The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled to leave in place a preliminary injunction halting the revised executive order from President Trump regarding travel from six Muslim-majority nations. Arguments in the case Hawaii v. Trump, were heard on May 15 by a three-judge panel of the court, and this was the second panel of this court to rule against the administration on this subject in the last five months. Meanwhile, as NPR notes, this is one of several cases pending relating to the administration's revised order.
The ruling affirmed an earlier decision in March by Judge Derrick K. Watson of the Federal District Court in Hawaii that effectively halted the revised executive order as soon as it was about to take effect.
As the New York Times reports, writing in that ruling, Watson echoed much of what the earlier Ninth Circuit panel had concluded about the first executive order, saying he was unable to take the language of it out of the context of Trump's many anti-Muslim remarks. "A reasonable, objective observer enlightened by the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance would conclude that the executive order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion," he wrote.
Writing in today's ruling, the judges said that the revised order "does not offer a sufficient justification to suspend the entry of more than 180 million people on the basis of nationality." And they added, "National security is not a 'talismanic incantation' that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power."
Trump has vowed since the first order was shot down by the Ninth Circuit in early February that he would take the fight to the Supreme Court.
In other legal news regarding the President, he is being sued today by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia for violating the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which prohibits a President from accepting money from foreign countries. The attorneys general filing the case say that Trump has failed to fully divest himself of his businesses, and is therefore violating the Constitution whenever any foreign nation does any business with any Trump company.
Previously: Ninth Circuit Hears Travel Ban Arguments Again Today
