Hawai‘i Blocks Trump’s Third Travel Ban

President Donald Trump’s official portrait from Wikimedia Commons.

Federal District Judge Derrick K. Watson today ordered a nationwide injunction against President Donald Trump’s third travel ban.

The president’s Sept. 24, 2017, proclamation, creating an indefinite ban on travel that targeted an overwhelmingly Muslim population, was set to go into effect at 6:01 p.m. HST today.

“This is the third time Hawaii has gone to court to stop President Trump from issuing a travel ban that discriminates against people based on their nation of origin or religion,” said Attorney General Doug Chin, following statement. “Today is another victory for the rule of law. We stand ready to defend it.”

Today’s order provides in part:

• Professional athletes mirror the federal government in this respect: they operate within a set of rules, and when one among them forsakes those rules in favor of his own, problems ensue. And so it goes with EO-3.
• EO-3 suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: it lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States” … [a]nd EO-3 plainly discriminates based on nationality.
• By indefinitely and categorically suspending immigration from the six countries challenged by Plaintiffs, EO-3… like its predecessor, thus “runs afoul” of the INA provision “that prohibit[s] nationality-based discrimination” in the issuance of immigrant visas.
• National security and the protection of our borders is unquestionably also of significant public interest. Although national security interests are legitimate objectives of the highest order, they cannot justify the public’s harms when the President has wielded his authority unlawfully. In carefully weighing the harms, the equities tip in Plaintiffs’ favor. “The public interest is served by ‘curtailing unlawful executive action.’

Download a copy of the order.

US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement on Judge Derrick Watson’s ruling:

“Judge Watson’s ruling makes clear that we are a nation of laws, no matter what this administration may try to do. There is a place here for peaceful immigrants from every corner of the world: Spain, Syria, Sudan, or Singapore. There is no place here for discrimination or xenophobia.”