海角大神

A federal judge in Hawaii has extended an order blocking President Trump鈥檚 March 6 travel ban, putting on indefinite hold a presidential directive that had suspended new visas for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries and barred all incoming refugees for 120 days.

The ruling, by US district judge Derrick Watson, turns an earlier restraining order into a preliminary injunction, as part of a legal challenge brought by the state of Hawaii against what it alleges is an unconstitutional religious ban.

The Trump administration had asked Mr. Watson to narrow that earlier restraining order to encompass no more than the visa suspension, arguing that the halt of the US refugee program did not affect Hawaii.

That argument failed to persuade the judge, who noted that it came only after a federal judge in Maryland, in issuing a separate block of the visa suspension, said it was unclear whether the refugee ban was also motivated by religious bias.

The 鈥渆ntirety of the Executive Order runs afoul of the Establishment Clause,鈥� wrote Watson in the ruling, 鈥渨here 'openly available data support a commonsense conclusion that a religious objective permeated the government's action.鈥� 鈥�

The decision amounts to another setback for Mr. Trump鈥檚 efforts to impose sweeping new restrictions on entry. And by bringing into the courtroom the president鈥檚 public remarks about the order, it may chart new territory in a legal gray area.

In December 2015, Trump鈥檚 campaign site said the then-candidate was promising a 鈥渢otal and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,鈥� a position Trump defended until months before the election, when he began to qualify the proposal in public remarks.

As 海角大神鈥檚 Henry Gass reported in February, lawsuits challenging Trump鈥檚 earlier, January order had cited the president鈥檚 suggestion that 海角大神 refugees would be prioritized, along with comments by campaign surrogates such as Rudy Giuliani:

In his arguments, Hawaii state attorney general Douglas Chin quoted Trump鈥檚 characterization of the revised version of the travel ban as a 鈥渨atered down鈥� version of the original.

"We cannot fault the president for being politically incorrect, but we do fault him for being constitutionally incorrect," Mr. Chin told the judge, according to the Associated Press.

The Trump administration is appealing the decision, with its first hearing before the Fourth聽Circuit Court set for May 8. A ruling in favor of the administration there would likely set up a decision in the US Supreme Court.

Joining the state of Hawaii in its challenge was the imam of a Honolulu mosque, Ismail Elshikh, an Egyptian-born American citizen who argued that the ban would prevent his Syrian mother-in-law from visiting her family in Hawaii.

The state had filed its challenge on the grounds that its economy would suffer from a decline in tourism, citing reports of a 鈥渘osedive鈥� in travel to the United States following the orders, while its state universities would encounter difficulties in recruiting students and faculty.

This report contains material by the Associated Press and Reuters.