U.S. Federal Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order to Block Trump Administration Travel Ban; Appellate Court Refuses to Grant Emergency Injunction (February 3, 2017) [1]
On February 3, 2017, a U.S. federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order [3] (TRO) halting the entirety of the Trump administration’s executive order (EO) barring entry of nationals from seven predominately-Muslim countries into the United States. This TRO follows other provisional orders that prevented the implementation of the EO against travelers from the banned countries that were already on U.S. soil or on their way to the U.S. On February 4, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied [4] the Justice Department’s request for an immediate reinstatement of the ban and requested that both sides file further arguments. A randomly selected panel of three judges from the court heard further arguments [5] by the Department of Justice and the two states that initiated the legal action, Washington and Minnesota, on February 7. In a media advisory [6], the court said it could issue a ruling this week. Either side could appeal an adverse ruling to the Supreme Court.