[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order [text] on President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order [text], which dictates that officials cannot bar valid immigrant visa-holders from entering the US. In the order, Judge André Birotte Jr. [official profile] also prohibited officials from detaining or blocking people from the seven countries identified by the executive order if they have US visas. The ruling does not apply to non-visa holders such as business persons, tourists or students. The White House earlier this week clarified [JURIST report] that the executive order does not apply to individuals with green cards, meaning those admitted for permanent US residence.

Many different groups and individuals have filed lawsuits in the wake of newly-elected president Trump’s swift and numerous executive actions. Earlier this week the City of San Francisco filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the Trump administration over the executive order to withhold federal funding from designated sanctuary cities. In January the Council on American-Islamic Relations [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST] in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s executive order restricting immigration from several Muslim-majority nations. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson also sued [JURIST report] President Donald Trump over the temporary immigration ban, and several other states have since followed suit. A journalist and a graduate student at MIT filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] last month against eight federal agencies for records on attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions [official profile]. Also in January the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York claiming President Donald Trump’s continued business dealings violate the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution.