Federal judge declines to immediately apply freeze of first Trump travel ban to new order

A federal judge in Washington state on Friday declined to declare immediately that his freeze of President Donald Trump’s original travel ban applied to the new executive order, saying he could not do so until the state filed an amended complaint challenging the new directive head on.

The decision from U.S. District Judge James Robart is a modest blow to the state of Washington, which had sued over the ban, because the quickest path to success would have been getting the judge to declare that Trump’s new order was affected by the freeze he imposed previously. But Robart declined to do that only for procedural reasons and did not address the merits of any arguments.

Neither side, he wrote, had filed a motion for him to consider, and the state’s previous complaints were directed at an executive order which is now revoked.

“Accordingly, the court also declines to resolve the apparent dispute between the parties concerning the applicability of the court’s injunctive order to the New Executive Order until such time as an amended complaint that addresses the New Executive Order is properly before the court,” Robart wrote.

The Washington attorney general’s office wrote on Twitter that its legal team was reviewing the order to “determine next steps.” The state had already indicated it would file an amended complaint, but it is unclear how soon the judge could take that up.

Trump’s new order, which is set to take effect on March 16, temporarily blocks the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries, and it suspends the U.S. refugee program. Like the first order — which suspended the refugee program, blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, and resulted in the provisional revocation of tens of thousands of visas — it has encountered significant legal resistance.

Hawaii was the first state to sue over the new order, and a hearing in that case is scheduled for Wednesday. A federal judge in Maryland will also hear arguments on that day in a separate suit over the ban. And in Washington, a group of U.S. citizens and their relatives who have pending visa applications have asked Robart separately from the state to immediately halt Trump’s directive. On Monday, the parties in that case will conduct a telephone hearing to set a schedule.