Monday 30 January 2017

Washington attorney general sues to block Trump immigration ban

Posted by sizzledfeed on 11:14

Washington attorney general sues to block Trump immigration ban

BY REID WILSON

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said Monday that his office would seek to halt President Trump’s controversial executive order blocking people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

In a press conference Monday in Seattle, Ferguson said he would ask the U.S District Court for the Western District of Washington to halt parts of the order, issued Friday, on the grounds that it violates the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The order also infringes on the rights of due process and violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, Ferguson said.

Ferguson’s office has also asked for a temporary restraining order temporarily stopping the implementation of the executive action.

“No one is above the law, not even the president,” Ferguson said. “And in the courtroom, it is not the loudest voice that prevails, it’s the Constitution.”

Amazon and Expedia, both Washington-based employers, said they would file briefs in support of Ferguson’s lawsuit.

Four federal judges over the weekend issued temporary injunctions against parts of the executive order, which left hundreds of people in federal custody in airports across the country. Hundreds more were denied seats on flights to the United States from airports in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Dubai.

But the White House said those rulings have not stopped the executive order from being implemented. Senior administration officials defended the order in a conference call with reporters on Sunday, even as thousands of protestors demonstrated against the order at airports across the nation.

Democratic attorneys general in 15 states and the District of Columbia said over the weekend they would work to overturn what they termed an unconstitutional executive order. Ferguson, one of the signers of the joint statement, said his office will be the first to file legal papers Monday afternoon.