At least four states are headed to court to fight Donald Trump’s latest executive order, which bars the citizens of Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days.
(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Washington state announced Thursday that it would renew its request to block the executive order after the White House rolled out a tighter, more streamlined version of the one issued in January.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson made the argument that “this is not a new lawsuit.”
“We’re asserting that the president cannot unilaterally declare himself free of the court’s restraining order and injunction,” Ferguson said at a news conference Thursday. “This is not a new lawsuit. It’s our view that that temporary restraining order that we’ve already obtained remains in effect. And the burden is on the federal government to explain why it does not.”
“You cannot tweet your away out of it,” Ferguson added. “It does not work that way in a courtroom.”
Ferguson said New York and Oregon have asked to join Washington in its legal filing.
(Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Hawaii became the first state to sue over the new order on Wednesday when attorney general Doug Chin issued a legal filing claiming the new order was the same as the original, just “dressed up differently.”
“Any time you have an executive order or some government decision that’s calling out people by their nation of origin or by religion, we’ve got to be a check against that,” Chin said. “This order brings back memories for a lot of people here.”
Press secretary Sean Spicer stood by the order during the briefing Thursday.
“We feel confident in how that was crafted and the input that was given,” Spicer said.
The White House issued the new order on Monday. It has two major differences from the first version of the executive order: it does not include Iraq and removes the blanket ban on Syrian refugees. (RELATED: Trump Signs Revamped Executive Order Restricting Immigration From 6 Countries)
