Wash. AG declares victory in lawsuit against Trump’s travel ban
Feb 16, 2017, 6:53 PM | Updated: 10:02 pm
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is declaring victory in his lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Trump’s administration said Thursday it will revise its travel ban order and does not want an appeals court review.
Washington state was the first state to challenge the president’s initial executive order on Jan. 30. A Seattle judge halted the ban that barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries and caused confusion at airports. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling to keep the travel ban blocked.
Related: Trump’s executive order goes back to court
The administration said in a court filing that it will replace the travel ban with a new one in the near future. In a news conference that ran more than an hour on Thursday, Trump said that “the roll out [of the executive order] was perfect.”
“We had a very smooth roll out of the travel ban, but we had a bad court … got a bad decision,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to keep going with that decision. We’re gonna put in a new executive order next week sometime.”
Hours later, Ferguson’s office sent out a news release, declaring victory in his State v. Trump case.
“Let’s be clear: Today’s court filing by the federal government recognizes the obvious — the President’s current Executive Order violates the Constitution,” Ferguson said. “President Trump could have sought review of this flawed Order in the Supreme Court but declined to face yet another defeat.”
Trump’s administration attacked the decision in Thursday’s court filing, saying the three-judge panel from the appeals court misunderstood the scope of the order.
The decision came in a lawsuit brought by the states of Washington, which said the ban unconstitutionally blocked entry on the basis of religion and harmed their residents, universities and sales tax revenue. Judges also rejected the federal government’s argument that courts do not have the authority to review the president’s immigration and national security decisions.
