Attorney generals from Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Minnesota have pledged to join litigation efforts against President Trump's revised travel ban. Hawaii will also file its own lawsuit against the White House.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (pictured) welcomed support from his counterparts as he again plans to legally challenge President Donald Trump's revised executive order banning nationals from selected majority-Muslim countries from entering the US.
Washington was the first state to sue over the original ban, arguing that it was unconstitutional and hurt the state's businesses and universities. The lawsuit resulted in a Seattle court issuing a nationwide emergency halt on its implementation - a decision later upheld in a federal appeals court. Ferguson said he will argue before the same Seattle judge that his decision against the original ban should also apply to the President's revised action.
"It cannot be a game of whack-a-mole for the court," Ferguson said. "In our view, this new executive order contains many of the same legal weaknesses as the first and reinstates some of the identical policies as the original."
Trump's new order maintains a 90-day ban on new visas for people from Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the US refugee program.
Unlike the original ban, the new order removes Iraq from the list of affected countries, ensures that current visa holders will be allowed entry into the country, removes language that would have effectively given priority to non-Muslim religious minorities and removes an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.
The original travel order was issued on January 27 and caused widespread chaos and protest across US airports. The White House said the old order will be revoked once the new action goes into effect, scheduled to be on March 16.
Trump's policy actions since February
Trump brought a new flurry of executive orders, memoranda and bill signings into effect in the last five weeks. Some were alterations of previous attempted policies, such as the travel ban. Here are the highlights.
Image: Reuters/C. Barria
Lucky number six - second time's a charm?
After his first travel ban was slapped down by several courts, Trump issued a revised order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries. This time, Trump dropped Iraq from a list that included seven blacklisted countries first time around. The new order temporarily suspended the entire US refugee program, but exempted those with visas and who had already been formally accepted as refugees.
Image: Reuters/C. Barria
Turning promises into policy
From February and into March, President Trump further advanced his political objectives through a combination of executive orders, memoranda, memos, and the signing of bills into law. He also used his executive authority to undo guidelines issued under the Obama administration.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
Multiple policy-making methods
In February, Trump signed 11 new executive orders (broad ranging directives that help the executive branch manage federal government operations) and issued one memorandum (a more direct executive action aimed at a specific agency) targeting the Department of Labor. The US President also signed five bills sent to his Oval Office desk by Congress, which will now become law.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
Kicking off financial de-regulation
President Trump's first February executive order established "core principles" for regulating the financial system and requires the Treasury Department to review and report on key provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. Republicans had criticized the act, which was implemented in the aftermath of the Great Recession, for strangling financial flexibility and inhibiting economic growth.
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
Expanding the power of the criminal justice system
Through a series of three executive orders, Trump followed up on his campaign promise to crack down on what he had described as rampant crime in the US. He ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to create a Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety and heralded stronger combating of transnational crime. Trump also called for new federal crime criteria to prevent violence against police.
Image: Getty Images/J. Lott
Changing succession in the Department of Justice
On February 9, Trump signed Executive Order 13775 reversing changes to the Justice Department's line of succession that President Obama had made mere days before leaving office. Trump had already side-stepped Obama's order when he removed and replaced acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she had refused to defend Trump's travel ban.
Image: Getty Images/P. Marovich
Slashing agency regulations
Executive Order 13777, signed February 24, builds off of his previous January 30 order prioritizing massive deregulation across the federal government. The February order introduces Regulatory Reform Officers into federal agencies and creates reform task forces. Together, these bodies will advise on the "repeal, replacement or modification" of regulations perceived as prohibitive or ineffective.
Image: Getty Images/D. McNew
Dismantling environmental protection
Trump began undoing environmental protections on two fronts. Firstly, he issued an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to review a rule that empowers the federal government to protect waterways. Though unlikely to have immediate effects, the order could eventually weaken the 1972 Clean Water Act. Trump also signed a bill invalidating an Obama-era stream protection rule.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/S. Helber
Promoting historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
Surronded in the Oval Office by leaders from historically black educational institutions, Trump signed Executive Order 13779 in order to "promote excellence and innovation" at HBCUs. Primary goals including increasing private-sector participation in the institutions, broadly improving HBCUs capabilities, improving the relationships between HBCUs and the federal government.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Guerrucci
Striking transgender guidelines
In a two-page letter to US public schoos, the Trump administration revoked a controversial Obama-era federal directive allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choosing. The White House jusitified the action through a pending court case, despite the guidelines already being on hold. The letter did not lay out new guidelines, meaning states can choose their policies.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMAPRESS
Reversing bill stopping mentally-ill people buying guns
On February 28 Trump signed a measure to block an Obama-era regulation that would have prevented about 75,000 people with mental disorders from purchasing firearms. In an effort to curb gun violence, the Obama administration asked the Social Security Administration to disclose information about people with certain mental illnesses to the gun background system.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Krzaczynski
Releases aggressive guidelines on deportation
In the third week of February the Department of Homeland Security released Trump's plans to aggressively enforce deportation policies regardless of the severity of an immigrant's criminal history. The guidelines kicked off a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Image: picture alliance/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/AP/dpa/C. Reed
Supports women in STEM fields
Trump signed two bills promoting women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). One required NASA to encourage young women to study STEM fields and pursue careers that will help advance science and space exploration. The second required the National Science Foundation to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to work in the commercial world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Guerrucci
13 images1 | 13
Major misgivings over travel ban
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said the proposed ban would harm the state's residents, employers, agencies, educational institutions, health care system and economy.
Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healey, said on Twitter that she was joining the Washington state lawsuit against "Trump's unlawful #MuslimBan2."
The ban, the Democratic lawmaker said, "remains a discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to make good on his campaign promise to implement a Muslim ban."
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the revised order "a Muslim ban by another name."
The government has remained tight-lipped ahead of the pending litigation battle over the ban, with a spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice declining to comment on Thursday. However, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that the Trump administration believed the new order would stand up to legal scrutiny. "We feel very confident with how that was crafted and the input that was given," he said.
Hawaii also takes legal action
Hawaii on Wednesday filed its own lawsuit against Trump's new order, arguing that the state depends heavily on tourism. The revised ban would hurt the state's economy, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said.
Chin said that because of Hawaii's unique culture and history, the state was unable to remain silent on the ban. The courts need to hear "that there's a state where ethnic diversity is the norm, where people are welcomed with aloha and respect," Chin said.
