Hawaii Judge slaps nationwide restraining order on Trump's re-written travel ban

A federal judge in Hawaii has hit President Trump's second travel ban with a restraining order Tuesday. The ban targeted six Middle East countries that former President Obama's administration has named among countries with terror threats: Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia. Iraq had been under the former travel ban but excluded from the second.

Bret Baier reported the breaking story on Fox News and read from the ruling.

"We have 5 hours before the travel ban," Baier explained, "the next one, is to go into effect, and a federal judge in Hawaii has ruled a temporary restraining order preventing this travel ban, the second one, the adjusted one, citing the merits of the Establishment Clause claim. The plaintiffs have met the burden establishing a strong likelihood of success, saying that they are going to put this on pause."

"Remember these are the six countries we talked about in that interview with the minority leader," Baier said, referring to his interview with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), "he wanted seven it seems, Saudi Arabia, but there are six, and a second bite of the apple to try to redo it by the administration after challenges in courts the first time."

The federal judge said the reasoning for restraining order depended on the argument that the travel ban might have violated First Amendment protections of religion. To substantiate the claim, Trump's campaign promise of calling for a "Muslim ban" were included in the judgement handed down by the judge. The travel ban was set to take effect Thursday.

Developing: @POTUS Travel Ban Halted: Hawaii judge grants restraining order #SpecialReport pic.twitter.com/t905BaF7Wk

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Hawaii was the first state to announce that it would challenge Trump's second travel ban, which was a rewritten version of an executive order that targeted seven Muslim countries. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) opined that the first travel ban was poorly written and the president's legal counsel was to blame, not Trump.

Trump had alternately vowed to fight for the first travel ban at the Supreme Court, and said he wouldn't, before hinting that he might still, and finally opting to rewrite it altogether.