US: Second federal court blocks most of latest travel ban

A second US federal district court judge issued a block Tuesday on the Trump administration’s third travel ban, which had been scheduled to take effect Wednesday. District Judge Theodore Chuang, of the US District Court, District of Maryland, issued the order while granting a preliminary injunction against the ban filed on behalf on an international refugee assistance group. Judge Chuang’s ruling echoed an earlier block on the administration’s latest travel ban issued by a federal district court judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii in that it pertained only to the ban’s proposed restriction on US entry of individuals from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, countries which the US government had deemed uncooperative with stringent US entry security requirements announced to the world in July. The Maryland judge, like the Hawaii judge, did not block the new travel ban’s restriction on US travel by North Koreans and certain Venezuelan government officials and family, which will be implemented as of Wednesday. The US Justice Department is expected to appeal both decisions.<br/>