[JURIST] Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey [official profile] declared on Thursday that Massachusetts will be joining fellow states in suing President Donald Trump to block his new travel ban executed on Monday. Trump’s new executive order [text] has removed Iraq from the former list of travel-restricted countries and suspended the refugee program for 120 days. Healey stated [Boston report] that the second ban, despite such changes, remains discriminatory and unconstitutional. Massachusetts will join Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, and New York in requesting Judge James Robart [official profile] to apply his previous travel ban suspension to the revised ban. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson [official profile] recently stated [JURIST report] that the new ban still violates the Equal Protection Clause and Establishment Clause of the United State Constitution [14th Amendment]. Despite legal challenges, the revised ban is scheduled to take effect on March 16.

President Donald Trump’s [official bio] series of executive orders overhauling immigration in the name of protecting the borders from terrorist threats have led to a series of legal challenges. JURIST Guest Columnist Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law discussed the effects of the original travel ban on the increased harassment [JURIST op-ed] at US airports by US Customs and Border Protection officials. As much as the order has had an impact on those trying to get into the United States, it has also tested the very fabric of the US system of governance. In February JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Williams discussed how the travel restrictions imposed by the Trump administration has tested the separation of powers [JURIST op-ed]between the executive and judicial branches of government.