Hawaii v. Trump: Answering Brief Filed in Travel Ban Case

President Donald Trump’s official portrait from Wikimedia Commons.

Last Friday afternoon, April 21, 2017,  the State of Hawai‘i filed its answering brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hawaii v. Trump.

On March 15, 2017, Judge Derrick Watson issued a 43-page opinion temporarily enjoining the federal government nationwide from enforcing or implementing Sections 2 and 6 of a second Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump (the travel ban).

The travel ban would have restricted immigration from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen, and also temporarily suspended refugee admissions.

The travel ban had been scheduled to become effective on March 16, 2017. The temporary restraining order blocking the travel ban was converted to a preliminary injunction on March 29, 2017. On April 7, 2017, the Department of Justice filed its opening brief seeking to overturn that preliminary injunction.

Hawai‘i’s answering brief states in part:

“The Executive Order flouts [the] protections [in the Constitution]. While the Constitution commits the immigration power to Congress, the President claims it for his own, recognizing no statutory limits on his powers of exclusion. And while the Bill of Rights guarantees Due Process and forbids the establishment of religion, the President seeks to enact a thinly veiled Muslim ban, shorn of procedural protections and premised on the belief that those who practice Islam are a danger to our country. The Constitution is not so easily cast aside.”

The Trump Administration is expected to file a reply brief on April 28, 2017. The appeal is scheduled to be heard before a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 15, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. in Seattle, Washington.

Download a copy of Hawaii’s answering brief: 17-15589 Answering Brief