Legal Challenges to Revised Trump Travel Ban Are Mounting

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson says President Donald Trump's revised travel ban has "the same illegal motivations as the original." Ferguson on Thursday asked a federal judge to block the new order by ruling a temporary restraining order against the first ban to also to the revised executive order, the AP reports. In the original lawsuit targeting the first ban, Ferguson said it was unconstitutional and hurt the state's businesses and universities. Ferguson says his message to Trump about the revised order is "not so fast" and that courts must decide the issue.

Earlier Thursday, US District Judge James Robart in Seattle granted Oregon's request to join Washington and Minnesota in their lawsuit opposing Trump's travel ban. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum asked to intervene in the lawsuit on Feb. 22, arguing that it is harmed the state in the same way as Washington claims. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said their states are also joining the lawsuit. Hawaii has filed its own lawsuit against the revised travel ban. (More Trump travel ban stories.)