NEW YORK: A federal judge in Hawaii has issued a nationwide order blocking US President Donald Trump's ban on travel, signalling that Donny will have to account for his heated rhetoric about Islam. Trump said he would fight the ruling and called it a "judicial overreach".
Another federal judge in Maryland ruled against Trump's order last week, adding a separate order forbidding the core provision of the travel ban from coming into effect. The moves come as the second major setback for Trump in his pursuit of a policy that he has effectively pushed as vital for national security. After his first attempt to cut down travel from a couple of predominantly Muslim countries came to an end in a courtroom drama last month, Trump issued a new and narrower travel ban affecting six countries, on March 6. However, in a pointed decision, Judge Derrick K Watson of the Federal District Court in Honolulu, wrote that a "reasonable, objective, observer" would view even the new order as "issued with a purpose to disfavour a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose."
Judge Theodore D Chuang, in Maryland, gave the same verdict hours later, both, prompting Trump's wrath, who didn't hold back and accused Judge Watson of ruling for "political reasons". "This ruling makes us look weak, which by the way we no longer are, believe me," Trump said. At a campaign-style rally in Nashville, Trump said he might re-issue the initial version and that his administration would "take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court. We are going to win."
