Second judge halts Trump’s travel ban

A second federal district judge has put a hold on President Trump’s latest travel ban.

Judge Theodore Chuang, a federal district judge in Maryland, temporarily blocked the majority of the president’s ban on nationals from eight countries, but he said the president could still ban individuals from North Korea, business officials from Venezuela and individuals lacking a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

The order now allows entry of individuals from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad.  

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Chuang is the second judge to halt the ban. Hawaii District Judge Derrick Watson went even further Tuesday, blocking all of Trump’s restrictions except with respect to Venezuelan officials or immigrants from North Korea.   

In a statement, Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, which brought the case along with other civil rights groups, said the president’s proclamation is still a Muslim ban at its core.

“And like the two before it, this one is going down to defeat in the courts. Religious discrimination with window dressing is still unconstitutional,” he said.

Chuang’s order is similar to an order the Supreme Court issued in June in two cases challenging Trump’s previous ban on nationals from six majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

The Justices reinstated the ban but carved out an exemption for people with a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S.

This report was updated at 10:00 a.m. EST