http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38972180
A US district judge in Virginia has ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order barring entry from seven countries is unconstitutional.
Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction, asserting that the campaign vow to institute a “Muslim ban” violated the First Amendment.
The Monday ruling is significant, as the judge ruled that religious bias is at the heart of Mr Trump’s ban.
All of the following is very encouraging.
In her 22-page ruling, the Virginia judge cited several of Mr Trump’s campaign statements including those in which he promised to create a “Muslim ban” if he were elected president.
“The president himself acknowledged the conceptual link between a Muslim ban and the EO (executive order),” Judge Brinkema wrote.
She also criticised the president’s statements that persecuted Christians may be permitted entry despite the ban, which she said amounts to a religious test.
She also referenced a Fox News interview in which former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump adviser, said that the president wants a “Muslim ban” and that he had been instructed by Mr Trump to put together a commission to determine “the right way to do it legally”.
Judge Brinkema sharply criticised lawyers for the justice department, who she said did not present any evidence except for the president’s executive order.
“Maximum power does not mean absolute power,” she wrote. “Every presidential action must still comply with the limits set” by the separation of powers laid out in the US Constitution.
If Trump is incapable of learning from his mistakes, and past history indicates that’s precisely the case, his term will be quite short.