A U.S. district judge in Hawaii has blocked President Donald Trump's travel ban just hours before it was set to take effect.

  • Hawaii judge blocks new Trump travel ban
  • Judge: New ban 'suffers from same maladies as predecessor'
  • Previous ban was struck down in January

The travel ban imposes visa and entry restrictions on citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, an Obama appointee, said the new restrictions ignore an appeals court ruling that said Trump's previous travel ban exceeded the scope of his authority. He wrote that the new executive order "suffers from the same maladies as its predecessor."

The latest ban "plainly discriminates based on nationality in the manner that the 9th Circuit has found antithetical to ... the founding principles of this nation,” Watson wrote.

Trump's first travel ban was struck down in January. The ban triggered several lawsuits, including Hawaii's. A later U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the White House to partially reinstate the ban but allowed refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person already legally in the U.S. to enter the country.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.