The state of Hawaii on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to allow President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban, partly blocked by lower courts, to go into full effect.
The ban would bar U.S. entry to people from six Muslim-majority countries.
Lawyers for the Democratic-governed state, which filed a legal challenge to the ban, were responding to the Trump administration’s request last week asking the conservative-majority court to allow the ban to go into effect completely.
Hawaii’s lawyers wrote that the latest ban, Trump’s third, discriminates against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution and is not permissible under immigration laws.
On November 13, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the ban to go partly into effect, lifting part of a district court judge’s nationwide injunction.
The Republican president’s ban was announced on September 24 and replaced two previous versions that had been halted by federal courts.
The ban currently applies to people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad who do not have connections to the United States. Those with family relationships and other formal connections with the United States, such as through a university, can enter the country.
In a separate case in Maryland spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge partly blocked the ban.
The administration has also asked the Supreme Court for that injunction to be lifted.
The ban also covers people from North Korea and certain government officials from Venezuela, and lower courts have allowed those provisions to go into effect.
Trump has said the travel ban is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Muslim militants. As a candidate, Trump had promised “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
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