The president is confronting the most serious setback of his young administration.
President Donald Trump lashed out on Saturday at "this so-called judge" who put a nationwide hold on the implementation of his travel ban denying entrance to the U.S. to refugees and people from seven majority-Muslim countries.
Meanwhile, federal agencies were already halting the implementation of the controversial order that appears certain to spark another weekend of protests as well as confusion for travelers and government officials.
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"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" Trump tweeted, after writing several other tweets defending his immigration stance.
The president's personal attack on a federal judge and broader disrespect for an independent judiciary, reminiscent of his assault last summer on the Mexican-American judge handling litigation against Trump University, drew a swift rebuke from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who hinted that the outburst could affect how Trump's recently named Supreme Court nominee is treated by Democrats in the coming weeks.
"The President's attack on Judge James Robart, a Bush appointee who passed with 99 votes, shows a disdain for an independent judiciary that doesn't always bend to his wishes and a continued lack of respect for the Constitution, making it more important that the Supreme Court serve as an independent check on the administration," Schumer said.
"With each action testing the Constitution, and each personal attack on a judge, President Trump raises the bar even higher for Judge Gorsuch's nomination to serve on the Supreme Court. His ability to be an independent check will be front and center throughout the confirmation process.
Hours after Trump's tweets, Vice President Mike Pence vowed that the administration "will uphold" the "timeless ideals" of the Constitution as he addressed the Federalist Society Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia and laid out an argument for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Robart's Friday night ruling in favor of the attorneys general of Washington state and Minnesota on a lawsuit they brought seeking to overturn Trump's travel ban prompted a typically combative initial reaction from the White House. But in a departure from recent patterns, the most confrontational language was quickly dialed back.
"At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a written statement. "The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people."
Spicer's statement was reissued about 10 minutes later to remove the word "outrageous." No explanation was given for the modification, but such intemperate language toward the judge's order could have landed government lawyers in hot water.
But there was no tempering Trump's own outrage Saturday morning over what is the most sweeping legal rebuke to his order since it was issued a week ago.
"Judge Robart’s decision, effective immediately, effective now, puts a halt to President Trump’s unconstitutional and unlawful executive order. It puts a stop to it immediately, nationwide," Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson told reporters. “What the judge announced today was nationwide; the president’s executive order does not apply."
Ferguson said the ruling also nullifies the impact of the order on people seeking to travel to the U.S.
"That relief is significant, to put it mildly," Ferguson said.
The judge ruled from the bench and quickly followed up with a written order. It appears to shut down all significant aspects of Trump's order that had immediate effect, including the suspension of entry into the U.S. of citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as the 120-day halt to refugee admissions, an indefinite stop to admission of refugees from Syria. The order also rejects Trump's effort to give Christians in those countries priority in the refugee program.
"For purposes of the entry of this TRO, the court finds that the states have met their burden of demonstrating that they face immediate and irreparable injury as a result of the signing and implementation of the Executive Order," Robart wrote. "The Executive Order adversely affects the states' residents in the areas of employment, education, business, family relations and freedom to travel."
The State Department has reversed the visa cancellations for foreigners, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Saturday that the department has suspended "any and all" actions ordered by Trump that are affected by judge's ruling.
"In accordance with the judge's ruling, DHS has suspended any and all actions implementing the affected sections of the Executive Order entitled, ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,’” Gillian Christenson said.
"This includes actions to suspend passenger system rules that flag travelers for operational action subject to the Executive Order.
"DHS personnel will resume inspection of travelers in accordance with standard policy and procedure."
Much of Robart's order appears modeled on litigation conservative states used to halt President Barack Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration. The judge finds, much as a district court and appeals court did in that suit, that states have standing to challenge federal immigration actions that affect their coffers.
"The States themselves are harmed by virtue of the damage that implementation of the Executive Order has inflicted on the operations and missions of their public universities and other institutions of higher learning, as well as injury to the States' operations, tax bases and public funds," Robart wrote.
The courtroom defeat for the Trump White House came just hours after Justice Department lawyers scored their first notable victory in the legal war over the executive order, persuading a judge in Boston to allow the expiration of a restraining order against the travel ban.
The 21-page decision from U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton was a preliminary one, but is a counterpoint to the series of hostile decisions from Robart and other judges.
One of those early court orders was issued early last Sunday by two of Gorton's colleagues on the federal court in Boston, who imposed a nationwide ban on deportation and detention of travelers based on Trump's order. Immigrant rights advocates wanted the seven-day temporary restraining order extended, but Gorton said such an extension was not warranted.
Gorton, also an appointee of President George W. Bush, said Trump's order was entitled to deferential review from the courts.
"The President has exercised his broad authority under [the law] to suspend entry of certain aliens purportedly in order to ensure that resources are available to review screening procedures and that adequate standards are in place to protect against terrorist attacks," the judge wrote. "Such a justification is 'facially legitimate and bona fide.'"
Gorton ruled that Trump's "order provides a reasonably conceivable state of facts [which concerns national security and] that could provide a rational basis for the classification," the judge wrote. "Accordingly, this Court declines to encroach upon the 'delicate policy judgment' inherent in immigration decisions."
The judge also appeared dismissive of arguments that the order—focused on citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries—amounts to invidious religious discrimination. Refugee-related provisions in the order "could be invoked to give preferred refugee status to a Muslim individual in a country that is predominantly Christian," wrote the judge, who is the brother of former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.). "Nothing in [that section] compels a finding that Christians are preferred to any other group."
The Trump White House may have scored the singular legal win because one of the most controversial aspects of the executive order—its impact on green-card holders—has now been effectively set to the side. The White House now says the order does not apply to such permanent residents at all. And a federal judge in Detroit issued a nationwide, permanent injunction Thursday barring any impact from the order on green card holders.
Gorton says in his ruling that, in his view, Trump's order never applied to green-card holders, despite the fact that more than 100 of them were detained for a time in the first day after the order was signed and that the Trump administration initially set up a waiver system to allow green card holders into the country under the order.
At least one other federal court also held a hearing Friday on Trump's travel ban. Complaining that the directive was not well vetted and had unleashed "chaos," a federal judge in Alexandria, Va. extended an order barring certain deportations from Dulles Airport and guaranteeing green-card holders arriving there access to lawyers.
