Washington attorney general challenges Trump’s latest travel ban as unconstitutional

OLYMPIA — State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed on March 13 an amended complaint in his lawsuit challenging President Trump’s travel ban as illegal and unconstitutional.

Ferguson also filed a motion to enforce the injunction he obtained on Feb. 3, which blocked implementation of the president’s original immigration Executive Order nationwide. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld that injunction on Feb. 9.

In his motion to enforce, Ferguson asks U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who granted the Feb. 3 injunction, to enforce the injunction against President Trump’s renewed travel ban. Ferguson also requests that the court hold a hearing on the matter March 14.

“No one is above the law, not even the President — and I will hold him accountable to the Constitution,” Ferguson said. “Cutting some illegal aspects of President Trump’s original travel ban does not cure his affront to our Constitution.”

Ferguson also announced a growing, multistate coalition working in support of his lawsuit, counting California as the most recent partner.

Robart granted Oregon’s motion to intervene on March 8. Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and now California also asked the court for permission to join the lawsuit. Those requests are currently pending.

On Jan. 30, the State of Washington filed the first lawsuit broadly challenging the constitutionality of the Trump Administration’s move to restrict immigration from several majority-Muslim nations and the resettlement of refugees.

The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal office for the State of Washington, with attorneys and staff in 27 divisions across the state providing legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions.