U.S. Judge Rejects Hawaii's Bid, Leaves Trump Travel Ban In Place

A judge rejected Hawaii’s bid to exempt grandparents from President Trump’s temporary travel ban.
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A U.S. judge rejected Hawaii’s bid to exempt grandparents from President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban on Thursday, but ruled that the state could ask the U.S. Supreme Court directly to clarify which parts of the order should take effect.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu had been asked to interpret a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that revived parts of Trump’s March 6 executive order banning people from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.

The highest court let the ban go forward with a limited scope, saying it could not apply to anyone with a credible “bona fide relationship” with a U.S. person or entity.

Trump said the measure was necessary to prevent extremist attacks. However, opponents including states and refugee advocacy groups sued to stop it, disputing its security rationale and saying it discriminated against Muslims.

Watson said in Thursday’s ruling he “declines to usurp the prerogative of the Supreme Court to interpret its own order.”

A spokesman for the Hawaii attorney general office said they would refile the request to the Supreme Court. Representatives for the Department of Justice could not be reached immediately for comment.

The government said after the Supreme Court ruling last month that a “bona fide relationship” meant close family members only, such as parents, spouses, fiancés, siblings and children.

Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would still be banned.

The state of Hawaii asked Watson last week to clarify the Supreme Court’s ruling, arguing the government’s definition of “bona fide relationship” was too narrow.

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