More US states challenge Trump’s revised travel ban in court

A day after the state of Hawaii filed an amended lawsuit to stop President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban at a federal court in Honolulu, several other states such as Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon and New York say they’ll follow suit.

Recall that Washington was the first US state to sue over Trump’s initial travel ban that created chaos worldwide and was eventually blocked, but the state in renewed suit argued that the revised order violates the constitution “by disfavouring Islam”.

Bob Ferguson, the state’s attorney general, said a motion by his office calls on an existing injunction against the travel ban issued in January to be applied to the new directive.

“My message to President Trump is – not so fast,” Ferguson said. “After spending more than a month to fix a broken order that he rushed out the door, the president’s new order reinstates several of the same provisions and has the same illegal motivations as the original.”

Read also: Hawaii attorneys file amended lawsuit against Trump’s revised travel ban

In a related development, attorney generals in the states of Massachusetts and Oregon said they had taken steps to join the lawsuit that Washington had filed along with Minnesota.

The dictates of the revised travel ban states that people from six Muslim-majority nations who are seeking new visas are temporarily halted from entry into the U.S even as it also suspends the country’s refugee program.

According to reports, the federal judge who blocked the first ban was persuaded by the argument of two state attorneys general that it was causing “irreparable harm”.

It is less clear those arguments would prevail the next time around.

The revised travel ban aims to address legal issues with the original order, which caused confusion at airports, sparked protests around the country and was ultimately blocked by federal courts.

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