Federal judge in Hawaii extends court
order blocking Trump travel ban
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[March 30, 2017]
HONOLULU (Reuters) - A federal judge
in Hawaii indefinitely extended on Wednesday an order blocking
enforcement of President Donald Trump's revised ban on travel to the
United States from six predominantly Muslim countries.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson turned an earlier temporary
restraining order into a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by
the state of Hawaii challenging Trump's travel directive as
unconstitutional religious discrimination.
Trump signed the new ban on March 6 in a bid to overcome legal problems
with a January executive order that caused chaos at airports and sparked
mass protests before a Washington judge stopped its enforcement in
February. Trump has said the travel ban is needed for national security.
In its challenge to the travel ban, Hawaii claims its state universities
would be harmed by the order because they would have trouble recruiting
students and faculty.
It also says the island state's economy would be hit by a decline in
tourism. The court papers cite reports that travel to the United States
"took a nosedive" after Trump's actions.
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The state was joined by a new plaintiff named Ismail Elshikh, an
American citizen from Egypt who is an imam at the Muslim Association of
Hawaii and whose mother-in-law lives in Syria, according to the lawsuit.
Hawaii and other opponents of the ban claim that the motivation behind
it is based on religion and Trump's election campaign promise of "a
total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
"The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and
pretend it has not seen what it has," Watson wrote on Wednesday.
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![](../images/033017pics/news_b3.jpg)
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin (R) arrives at the U.S.
District Court Ninth Circuit to seek an extension after filing an
amended lawsuit against President Donald Trump's new travel ban in
Honolulu. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry
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Watson wrote that his decision to grant the preliminary injunction
was based on the likelihood that the state would succeed in proving
that the travel ban violated the U.S. Constitution's religious
freedom protection.
Trump has vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is
currently split 4-4 between liberals and conservatives with the
president's pick - appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch - still awaiting
confirmation.
(Reporting by Hunter Haskins in Honolulu; Additional reporting and
writing by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Paul Tait)
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