IMMIGRATION/TRAVEL BAN: “A federal judge here expressed deep concerns Friday about President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, signaling she may issue a preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s efforts to restrict entry to the U.S.
If U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema does so, it would add another judicial roadblock to the president that is similar to court orders issued elsewhere, including a ruling issued Thursday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco.
As Judge Brinkema held a morning hearing in the Virginia case, judges and policymakers were continuing to digest that appeals court ruling, which said Mr. Trump’s travel ban shouldn’t go into effect while courts consider its underlying legality.
During the Virginia hearing, the Justice Department said ‘all options are being considered’ in light of Thursday’s ruling by the Ninth Circuit.
Judge Brinkema, weighing a legal challenge to the order by the state of Virginia, repeatedly asked why the Trump administration had provided no evidence to support the president’s determination that the executive order was necessary. ‘Courts have been begging you,’ she said.”
– Aruna Viswanatha and Brent Kendall, “Another Federal Judge Questions Trump’s Travel Ban,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 10, 2017