Lawyers representing Hawaii late Friday night filed a new motion against President Donald Trump's travel ban, asking a judge who had rejected a similar request a day earlier to declare the policy violates an injunction he issued in March.
In their new motion, the state's legal team also asked U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson to modify his order to prohibit a federal government rule that requires refugees and people seeking visas to have specific family or other ties to allow them to be exempt from the ban, reports Politico.
"Both forms of relief are within this Court’s power to award, and Plaintiffs respectfully ask that this Court act swiftly to vindicate its injunction and halt the Government’s campaign of unlawful conduct," Hawaii's lawyers, led by Attorney General Douglas Chin and private counsel Neal Katyal, wrote.
On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court rejected Hawaii's request for an emergency order blocking parts of the travel ban, with the state seeking clarification over which groups would be banned.
Hawaii had sought relief after Watson said Thursday it wasn't his role to interpret the Supreme Court's ruling allowing the Trump administration to suspend visas for citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries.
In an order Thursday, Watson said it was not his role to interpret a Supreme Court ruling from last month that allowed Trump to proceed with his efforts to suspend visa issuance to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries and to halt refugees from around the globe. While the justices effectively revived a policy that lower federal courts had gutted, the high court also gave foreigners with certain kinds of U.S. ties a reprieve from the limits—at least until the justices hear formal arguments on the issue in October.
Hawaii appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying in a filing on Friday that the appeals court has the power to narrow the travel ban while it decides how to interpret the Supreme Court's ruling.
However, the 9th Circuit rejected the argument, saying it did not have the jurisdiction to hear Hawaii's appeal.
In their new filing, Hawaii's lawyers argued that Watson needs to determine if the Trump administration's definition of who constitutes close family is too narrow, and if refugees already assigned to resettlement facilities should be barred.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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