Judges From Hawaii and Maryland Block Trump’s New Travel Ban
President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 is facing the same roadblocks as its predecessor despite being “watered down.”
A federal judge in Hawaii made a ruling on Wednesday that temporarily restrained the ban’s introduction just hours before it was set to take place, according to CNN. Then, a federal judge in Maryland challenged the 90-day ban on travelers from six m Muslim-majority countries.
“The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,” US District Judge Derrick Watson or Honolulu wrote in his ruling.
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“Equally flawed is the notion that the Executive Order cannot be found to have targeted Islam because it applies to all individuals in the six referenced countries,” he continued. “It is undisputed, using the primary source upon which the Government itself relies, that these six countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations that range from 90.7% to 99.8%.”
“It would therefore be no paradigmatic leap to conclude that targeting these countries likewise targets Islam,” Watson added. “Certainly, it would be inappropriate to conclude, as the Government does, that it does not.”
Watson and Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland both cites some of the president’s comments about Muslims during his campaign to support their claim.
The president was noticeably perturbed by the block during a rally on Wednesday – yes, he’s still holding rallies.
“The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first one,” Trump said.
“This is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach,” he continued, making sure he included the GOP’s favorite buzzword.