Wash. AG Ferguson Will Ask Judge To Block New Trump Travel Ban

SEATTLE, WA - Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson will take legal action to prevent President Donald Trump's new travel ban from taking effect.

Ferguson will not file a new lawsuit against the ban, but he will ask a federal judge to extend an existing restraining order to the new travel ban, which Trump signed on Monday. In February, Ferguson won a restraining order against Trump's original travel ban, and he says it still applies to the new one.

Ferguson said that it should be up to the courts to decide whether the new travel ban is sufficiently different enough to remain in place and stand on its own.He said that the Trump administration cannot play "legal whack-a-mole," rewriting executive orders to fix previous mistakes.

“My message to President Trump is — not so fast,” Ferguson said. “After spending more than a month to fix a broken order that he rushed out the door, the President’s new order reinstates several of the same provisions and has the same illegal motivations as the original. Consequently, we are asking Judge Robart to confirm that the injunction he issued remains in full force and effect as to the reinstated provisions.”

Ferguson filed a motion in federal court in Seattle on Thursday, formally asking U.S. District Court Judge James Robart to extend the existing restraining order to the new ban. If Robart agrees, the restraining order would block two key pieces of the new executive order regarding visas and refugees.

In the Thursday filing, Ferguson's staff quotes Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, who said of the new policy: "the goal is obviously to maintain the way that we did it the first time."

In a separate court filing this week, Trump's Department of Justice attorneys argued that the policies in the new executive order are "substantially different" than the first.

Ferguson cited two reasons why he believes Washington will prevail: the ban on refugees is still in the new order, and the ban on travel from six majority-Muslim countries - as opposed to the seven countries in the original order - is "virtually identical" to the original order.

Trump signed the new executive order on Monday. It differs from the first travel ban executive order - which Ferguson won a nationwide restraining order against - by reducing the number of majority-Muslim countries, and restricting only new visas, among other changes. The new ban does not go into effect until March 16.

At a press conference on Monday, Ferguson said that he intended to use this week to study the ban and then decide whether to challenge it in court. After Trump’s first travel ban, issued Jan. 27, Ferguson and his staff worked over the weekend consulting with Washington residents and businesses to gather evidence about how the travel ban had harmed them.

Washington Solicitor General Noah Purcell said Thursday that the state has been in talks with businesses and educational institutions in light of the second travel ban, and said that "they are still extremely concerned about this order."

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Attorneys general from Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York will be working with Washington on the cast, Ferguson said.

"I think it just shows the breadth across the nation that we have," Ferguson said of the new legal support. "I think it goes to the strenght of our case."

Image via Elaine Thompson/Associated Press