Justice, Politics

Court Blocks Travel Ban 2.0: Constitution 3 -- Trump 0

Trump is losing and the constitution is winning.

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(photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images).

(photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images).

A federal judge in Hawaii has issued a nationwide stay on Donald Trump’s revised travel ban.

Yes. The second one. Foiled again.

For those playing along at home, U.S. District Judge James Robert blocked the first one, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that stay, and now Judge Derrick K. Watson has blocked the revised order.

Are you sensing a pattern?

Most importantly, Judge Watson seemed to agree that Trump’s statements about the intent of the ban, and the statements from his cabal of advisors, were indeed relevant to how courts should interpret Travel Ban 2.0. From the New York Times:

“Are you saying we close our eyes to the sequence of statements before this?” Judge Watson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, asked in a hearing Wednesday before he ruled against the administration.

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Again, the Trump Administration is learning that courts are not so easily fooled. When you campaign on a “Muslim Ban,” promise a “Muslim Ban,” and then issue an order that is in effect a “Muslim Ban,” changing its name at the last minute doesn’t work.

This might come as a shock to the Witch King of bankruptcy, but “Rebranding” doesn’t work either. Not in front of a judge. You can stick a funnel on a horse and call it a unicorn, Mr. Trump, but you can’t make it s**t rainbows. You’re dealing with educated people now, not just fleecing yokels anymore.

Trump is being challenged in so many jurisdictions over this thing, it’s hard to know what the next shoe will be to drop-kick him up the ass. Maybe everybody else pauses while the Hawaii case goes back up to the Ninth Circuit? Maybe the others continue and we eventually get some kind of circuit split? Maybe Trump will issue Travel Ban 3.0; this time only people who look like bad hombres will be banned!

Maybe Trump will fight this one all the way to the Supreme Court?

Speaking of the Supreme Court, if there was any way to make the stakes higher for next week’s confirmation hearings, here we go. Neil Gorsuch will not be able to answer any direct questions on the Travel Ban, but boy I don’t think that’s going to stop people from asking. And I don’t think any Democratic senator wants to vote for the guy who might be the fifth vote to uphold Trump’s bigoted executive order. So we’re going nuclear or we’re going home.

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Especially since the circuit courts are taking the lead in fighting this thing. Remember, a tie means the circuit ruling survives. Even delaying Gorsuch could have real effects on the outcome of this immigration policy.

Trump will never admit defeat. He will keep trying to push this through.

But he’s losing. The Constitution is winning. Constitution Akbar!

UPDATE (3/16/2017, 7:25 a.m.): It’s not just Hawaii; a federal judge in Maryland has also ruled against Donald Trump’s revised immigration order.

UPDATE (3/16/2017, 7:35 a.m.) From the Times:

A second federal judge in Maryland ruled against Mr. Trump overnight, with a separate order forbidding the core provision of the travel ban from going into effect….

In Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed [Judge Watson’s] conclusion hours later, ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants, that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Latest Travel Ban Nationwide [New York Times]
Federal judges block Trump’s travel ban [CNN]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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