Ferguson Assists Hawaii In Trump Travel Ban Lawsuit

SEATTLE, WA - Attorney General Bob Ferguson is joining Hawaii in its fight to stop President Donald Trump's latest travel ban executive order. The order has been suspended by a federal judge in Hawaii - or "an island in the Pacific" as Attorney General Jeff Sessions calls it. On Thursday night, Ferguson announced that he would join other attorneys general in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in Hawaii's suit.

Ferguson joined 15 other attorneys general from across the U.S. in filing the brief. There is a hearing for the case scheduled for May 15 at U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Ferguson successfully blocked Trump's original travel ban. In response, the Trump administration re-wrote the ban and released it anew on March 6. On March 15 in Honolulu, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson blocked the new order.

The new friend-of-the-court brief argues that the March 6 travel ban - which blocks travel to the U.S. from Yemen, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria - hurts state economies. Ferguson is joined in the brief by attorneys general from New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, California, Delaware, California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, New Mexico, and North Carolina.

"Nationals from the six designated countries are (or plan to become) faculty and students at our public universities, doctors at our medical institutions, employees of our businesses, and, frequently, guests who contribute to our economies when they come here to visit their families or for purposes of tourism," the brief says.

“Courts continue to recognize that the President’s travel ban is illegal and unconstitutional,” Ferguson said in a press release. “As we argue in our ongoing case in federal court here in Washington, no one is above the law, not even the president.”

You can read the full brief here.

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