Judge temporarily blocks Trump immigration order

A woman protests President Trump&#039;s immigration order

(Image credit: Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

published 4 February 2017

A federal judge in Seattle on Friday night issued a temporary restraining order against President Trump's executive order suspending all U.S. entrance from seven majority-Muslim nations. U.S. District Judge James Robart's order came in response to a suit from the states of Washington and Minnesota; it indicates that the states do have standing to sue and is explicitly applied on a national basis. Robart is a George W. Bush appointee.

"At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the president, which we believe is lawful and appropriate," the White House said in a response to the order. "The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people."

Though Homeland Security employees were told via email late Friday to immediately comply with the temporary block, airlines and U.S. embassy employees in the seven nations are uncertain of how to proceed. "We don't know what the effect will be, but we're working to get more information," said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. At least four airlines, three of them European, began accepting citizens from the seven countries on flights to America by Saturday morning.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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