Hawaii tells Supreme Court it plans to challenge new travel ban

In a letter to the Supreme Court on Thursday, an attorney for the state of Hawaii said the state is planning to challenge President Trump’s new travel ban.

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Hawaii’s attorney, Neal Katyal, said the state plans to file a motion in district court on Friday asking that the court lift the stay of its proceedings and permit the filing of an amended complaint and motion to temporarily block the president’s new order, which is set to go into effect in two weeks.

The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear cases challenging Trump’s previous 90-day ban on travelers from six majority-Muslim countries on Oct. 10, but canceled arguments after Trump issued on Sept. 24 new targeted restrictions on travelers from Chad, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

In briefs Thursday, the Department of Justice argued the Supreme Court should throw out the lower court rulings against the ban and rule the cases are now moot.

The challengers, which include Hawaii and the International Refugee Assistance Project, claim the cases are in no way moot. If the justices decide not to hear arguments, they urged the court to dismiss their petitions for court review as “improvidently granted” and allow the parties to litigate their dispute in the context of the new order.