A federal judge in Hawaii rejected on Sunday the Justice Department’s request to clarify further the scope of its temporary restraining order against President Trump’s travel ban, hindering an attempt by the administration to narrow the injunction.
Lawyers for the Justice Department filed a motion Friday to limit the restraining order to the section which bars immigrants from six countries from the Middle East and North Africa. That section and another that suspends refugees entering the U.S. for 120 days were combined in the TRO, but the administration said the original case made by Hawaii didn’t address all of the provisions in those sections.
Hawaii’s lawyers pushed back on Saturday, saying that they already made a case that the TRO should apply to both of those sections “as a whole,” and pressed the judge to reject the Justice Department’s motion.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson sided with Hawaii in a short electronic order filed Sunday.
“The Motion … asks the Court to make a distinction that the Federal Defendants’ previous briefs and arguments never did,” the judge wrote. “As important, there is nothing unclear about the scope of the Court’s order… (‘Defendants… are hereby enjoined from enforcing or implementing Sections 2 and 6 of the Executive Order across the Nation.’). The Federal Defendants’ Motion is DENIED.”
If the administration appeals, the case would be taken up the the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against Trump’s first executive order.
Attorneys for the Justice Department have already appealed a separate injunction by a judge in Maryland, which only focused on the immigration ban. That case moves to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
