Hawaii federal judge blocks revised Trump travel ban nationwide

A federal judge in Hawaii has blocked Donald Trump’s revised travel ban just hours before it was due to go into effect, marking another stinging blow to the administration.

Judge Derrick Watson, a district judge in Honolulu, issued a nationwide temporary restraining order against the travel ban, which targets visa applicants from six Muslim majority countries and temporarily suspends the US refugee resettlement programme.

Trump, who has said the ban was needed for national security, lashed out at the judge's ruling, saying it "makes us look weak."

The ruling comes a month after Trump’s first order was blocked by a court in Washington state, prompting the administration to issue a narrower order last week, on 6 March, that attempted to navigate some of the complaints made in the first round of legal battles. The January executive order caused chaos at airports and sparked mass protests before a Washington judge stopped its enforcement in February.

Lawyers representing the state of Hawaii had argued the revised order was subject to the same constitutional complaints as the first attempted travel ban because it represented another veiled attack on Muslims.

Judge Watson concluded in his ruling that while the order did not mention Islam by name, "a reasonable, objective observer ... would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavour a particular religion." Watson was appointed to the bench by former Democratic President Barack Obama.

The claim was rejected by government lawyers who argued the order was issued on national security grounds and displayed no hostility or “animus” towards a particular religion, because the majority of Muslims in the world would not be affected by it.

“The illogic of the government’s contentions is palpable,” Watson continued in a forthright rebuke. “The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed.”

He added that court would not interpret the religious protections clause in the constitution in a “purely mathematical” manner.

Crucially, Judge Watson’s ruling also referenced inflammatory statements made by Trump throughout the campaign that singled out Muslims and the Islamic faith as a broad national security threat. The judge described these remarks as “significant and unrebutted evidence of religious animus” driving the first and second order.

Speaking at a rally in Nashville, Trump called his revised executive order a "watered-down version" of his first. "I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place," Trump said.

Trump called the judge's block "unprecedented judicial overreach" and said he will take the case "as far as it needs to go," including to the US Supreme Court.

The Department of Justice called the ruling "flawed both in reasoning and in scope," adding that the president has broad authority in national security matters. "The Department will continue to defend this Executive Order in the courts," it said a statement.

The nation's highest court is currently split 4-4 between liberals and conservatives with Trump's pick - appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch - still awaiting confirmation. “You don’t think this was done by a judge for political reasons, do you?” Trump said sarcastically. The comments were similar to those he made after his first travel ban was struck down by a federal judge in Washington whom he branded in a later tweet a “so-called judge”.