Strike Two: Trump's Second Travel Ban Halted

Donald Trump's newest version of a travel ban has met the same fate as his first -- a nationwide freeze.

Today in Hawaii, U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson issued the halt, in a case brought against the ban by the state, The Washington Post reports.

"Lawyers for Hawaii alleged the new travel ban, much like the old, violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it is essentially a Muslim ban, hurts the ability of state businesses and universities to recruit top talent and damages the state's robust tourism industry," the newspaper reports.

The latest ban, contained in a March 6 executive order, included a 90-day halt in issuing new visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries -- Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, and Syria -- a 120-day moratorium on admission of refugees from any country, and reduction in the number of refugees accepted by the U.S. this year from 110,000 to 50,000. Several LGBT organizations have pointed out that the ban is not only discriminatory but endangers people fleeing persecution, many of whom are LGBT. The ban was to take effect Thursday.

Trump's first ban, issued January 27, was frozen nationwide by a federal judge in Washington State, and an appeals court upheld that order. His administration did not appeal further, instead crafting the second order. The same Washington judge also heard arguments in a lawsuit against the ban today, as did a federal judge in Maryland.

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At a rally in Nashville Wednesday night, Trump called Judge Watson's decision "an unprecedented judicial overreach," CNN reports. He pledged to take the fight to the Supreme Court if necessary -- the same pledge he made on the first one, and on which he did not follow through.