AT an extraordinary, phoned-in hearing on February 7th, three federal judges heard arguments in Washington v Trump, a fight over the legality and constitutionality of the 45th president’s order suspending America’s refugee programme and banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. The executive order, announced on January 27th, was halted on February 3rd when a federal district judge in Seattle, James Robart, issued a temporary restraining order against it in response to a complaint by the state of Washington (later joined by Minnesota) that the ban was causing irreparable harm to “employment, education, business, family relations and freedom to travel”. The Trump administration reacted with a series of angry tweets (including a dismissal of Mr Robart as a “so-called judge”) and asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to reverse the judge’s decision and reinstate the travel restrictions.
Only 96 hours elapsed between the order lifting the ban and the appeals court’s hearing to reconsider it, leading lawyers for Washington state and the Justice department to lament during the argument, which lasted more than an hour, that...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2kpFWZn
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