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How legal challenges to Trump travel ban are playing out

Associated Press

Legal battles are playing out across the U.S. as opponents of President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations take their fight to the courtroom. Hearings were being held Friday in a few of the cases.

A look at some of the other court challenges outside of Washington state:

Virginia

A judge is allowing Virginia to join a lawsuit challenging the travel ban.

Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema greatly expands the scope of the lawsuit, which was initially focused only on legal permanent residents, commonly called green-card holders. Brinkema indicated a willingness to consider cases involving anyone who had been issued a visa and had it revoked.

A federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked the ban Friday at the request of Washington state and Minnesota. U.S. District Judge James Robart wrote that his temporary restraining order “is granted on a nationwide basis.”

Massachusetts

A federal judge in Boston has declined to extend a temporary injunction against Trump’s ban. But the federal ruling in Seattle later in the day put the ban on hold nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston declined Friday to renew an order prohibiting the detention or removal of people as part of Trump’s order on refugees and immigrants. That means a seven-day, temporary injunction granted Jan. 29 would have expired as scheduled Sunday.

Hawaii

Hawaii is suing the federal government to stop Trump’s travel ban.

Attorney General Doug Chin says Trump’s order keeps Hawaii families apart and keeps residents from traveling. He says it degrades values Hawaii has worked hard to protect.

Chin says the order also will make foreign travelers feel unwelcome, which is a problem for Hawaii’s tourism-powered economy.

Hawaii filed the lawsuit in federal court in Honolulu on Friday.

New York

A Brooklyn judge on Thursday extended a temporary restraining order to Feb. 21, but the Justice Department said it will ask her to throw out the case.

U.S. District Judge Carol Amon’s ruling extended a stay that had been issued Saturday by a different judge and would have expired Feb. 11. Amon extended the order to give more time for the government and civil liberties organizations to file paperwork.

Michigan

A federal judge in Detroit says U.S. green-card holders shouldn’t be affected by the order.

The Arab-American Civil Rights League argued in a suit filed this week in Detroit’s U.S. District Court that the executive action is unconstitutional and targets immigrant communities.

A restraining order released Friday from U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts covers legal permanent residents, not some others who also are part of the lawsuit. She says lawyers for the government clarified to her that the ban doesn’t apply to “lawful” permanent residents.

California

Three California university students are challenging the ban. Their federal suit, filed Thursday in San Francisco, says the ban is unconstitutional and has created hardships for the students.

It alleges that a freshman at Stanford University now can’t visit her husband in Yemen; another Yemeni at San Diego’s Grossmont College can’t resume studies there; and an unidentified University of California, Berkeley doctoral candidate from Iran fears losing a job opportunity.