On Friday night, the White House said it would direct the Justice Department to file for an emergency stay of the ruling that would allow continued enforcement of the president’s order. In his initial statement, the press secretary, Sean Spicer, described the ruling, issued by Judge James Robart of Federal District Court in Seattle, as “outrageous.” Minutes later, the White House issued a new statement deleting the word outrageous.
Mr. Trump’s Twitter post showed no such restraint. It recalled the attacks he made during the presidential campaign on a federal district judge in California who was presiding over a class-action lawsuit involving Trump University.
In the current case, Judge Robart, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, declared that Mr. Trump’s immigration order, restricting the entry of people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, was invalid because the government was “arguing that we have to protect the U.S. from individuals from these countries, and there’s no support for that.”
