The legal fight against President Trump’s second travel ban, which aims to keep refugees and citizens of six majority Muslim nations from traveling to the United States, continues. A federal appeals court in Seattle heard arguments over the second ban on Monday.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who led the fight in striking down the first travel ban, joined Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! to discuss the ongoing legal battle and other ways in which courts are challenging presidential power.

“Every federal judge so far that has looked at this case, from the original travel ban to the revised one, whether those are federal judges appointed by Democratic presidents or Republican presidents, have all agreed that the injunction must be in place and that the travel ban cannot go forward,” Ferguson says. “You can’t say you’re going to have a Muslim ban and try and make that legal. That violates our Constitution. And multiple federal judges have came to the same conclusion.”

Ferguson is also one of 20 state attorneys general calling for a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Having the president of the United States fire the FBI director, who was in the middle of an investigation regarding Russian interference related to the president’s key advisers, to take an action like that is, frankly, shocking, from a constitutional sense,” Ferguson says.

“I think one key aspect of this that we see from the president is he does these outlandish actions. It’s in an executive order on a Muslim ban or firing the FBI director,” he continues. “I think the key to success in taking the president on and restoring the rule of law is put him in a forum that he is, frankly, going to be on the defensive and not as comfortable, and that’s the courtroom. That’s through a special prosecutor. You can’t tweet your way out of an investigation from a special prosecutor. You can’t tweet your way out of a courtroom.”

Watch the full interview below:

—Posted by Emma Niles

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#attorney general#constitution#democracy now#donald trump#investigation#muslim ban#national#politics#russia#travel ban#usa#video#washington state