JFK Aiport Terminal, considerd gateway to America, Phtto by Doug Letterman via Wikimedia Commons
Agreeing with the premise of a lawsuit filed by the state of Hawaii, a federal judge has ordered a nationwide suspension of President Donald Trump’s second travel ban, which affected new visa applicants from six Middle Eastern and African countries and sought a temporary halt to US refugee program.
Though pared down to address legal challenges, the second travel ban, also evoked criticism as it was conceived as targeting residents of Muslim majority countries.
U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson, while admitting the state of Hawaii’s challenge, subscribed to that view.
The decision came hours before the travel ban order was to be enforced.
The first travel ban, issued in January, was also frozen under court order, following which the Administration watered down the executive order and took Iraq off the list of countries which were affected by the order. The countries included in the revised ban included Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen.
Reacting to the Court’s decision, President Trump called the ruling an “unprecedented judicial overreach,” and vowed to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court.
“This is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach. This ruling makes us look weak, which by the way, we no longer are, believe me,” Trump said, during a rally in Nashville, Tennessee.
“We’re going to fight this terrible ruling. We’re going to fight this case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court.”
In his ruling on Wednesday, Judge Watson found that “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 rejected the premise that the U.S. Administration was not targetting the Muslims of the world .
“The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable,” Watson wrote. “The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed.”
At least six states are seeking to block the travel ban.
