You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

AG Sessions Amazed Judge “On an Island in the Pacific” Blocked Trump

HeadlineApr 21, 2017

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week he was amazed that a federal judge “sitting on an island in the Pacific” had the power to halt President Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from six majority-Muslim nations. Sessions was referring to U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii, who ruled in March that Trump’s executive order violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which bars discrimination on religious grounds.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional powers.”

Attorney General Sessions’s comments drew condemnation from Hawaii’s congressional delegation. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono accused Sessions of “dog whistle politics,” tweeting, “Hawaii was built on the strength of diversity & immigrant experiences- including my own. Jeff Sessions’ comments are ignorant & dangerous.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top