Hawaii AG files supplemental brief with U.S. Supreme Court in travel ban case

Hawaii’s Attorney General has filed today a supplemental brief with the U.S. Supreme Court contending a new memo issued by President Donald Trump has rendered his so-called travel ban “unnecessary and unlawful.”

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Monday in favor with Hawaii to block Trump’s travel ban which targets six Muslim-majority countries in the Hawaii v. Trump case. The decision, however, did not block internal studies by the government.

Trump issued Wednesday a memorandum where he directed agencies to initiate internal vetting reviews and to put the ban into effect “whenever the remaining injunctions are lifted.”

The attorney general’s office said U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson ordered Monday the injunction to be revised to be consistent with the opinion of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The supplemental brief filed by Hawaii today argues “since the alleged rationales for the bans were to allow the Government to conduct these internal vetting reviews, the new memo from the President makes clear that the Order’s travel and refugee restrictions are no longer required to accomplish what the Government intended.”