A week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order limiting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries to the U.S., a federal judge in Seattle has just issued a nationwide temporary restraining order kneecapping the White House. The ruling against the so-called travel ban, which elicited a backlash across the country that has included lawsuits and protests, puts the next move in the court of the Celebrity Apprentice host-turned-POTUS and how he reacts.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson
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Judge James Robart’s TRO ruling just came down at the conclusion of a hearing in which Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson squared off against federal lawyers over the controversial executive order of January 27. “The Constitution prevailed today,” Ferguson said in a statement after the ruling. “No one is above the law — not even the president.”
Ferguson’s office had filed an amended complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court to stop Trump’s order. The state of Minnesota had joined as a plaintiff in the action.
The Twitter-friendly President has not responded yet, but he put this up on Twitter a couple hours earlier:https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827655062835052544
Hollywood has been vocal in its opposition to the ban, which put a 90-day halt on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from entering the U.S. (it also froze the Syrian refugee program for 120 days, with an aim to eventually cut it in half). The most high-profile victim in the industry is Iran-born director Asghar Farhadi, an Oscar nominee for The Salesman. His status to attend the upcoming Academy Awards was uncertain after the executive order was signed; he later said he would not attend the ceremony anyway in protest.
Complicating things further for the administration, beyond anger, additional legal action and political backlash, there isn’t a lot Trump can do against the George W. Bush appointed Robart – unlike Acting Attorney Generals and Apprentice contestants, federal judges can’t be pink slipped by the President
