Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
The attorneys general from Massachusetts, New York, and Washington are suing the Trump administration for the president's controversial executive order banning refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, the Associated Press reports."This is a president who does not have respect for the rule of the law," New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, told the AP Tuesday. "That's something that bothers a lot of people."Schneiderman and Massachusetts AG Maura Healey announced on Tuesday they would be working together with groups in their states, including the ACLU, that have already filed lawsuits against the president for this action. Their statements follow Washington's attorney general, Bob Ferguson, who announced his own lawsuit on Monday, which asks a judge to throw out certain parts of Trump's executive order that bars people from entering the country from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen."It's my responsibility as attorney general to defend the rule of law, to uphold the Constitution on behalf of the people of this state," Ferguson said Monday. "And that's what we're doing."The lawsuits follow a letter signed by 16 Democratic state attorneys general on Sunday condemning the immigration ban. That letter includes signatures from Schneiderman, Healey, and Ferguson, as well as the attorneys general who represent California, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Virginia, Vermont, Oregon, Connecticut, New Mexico, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Illinois, and the District of Columbia.The letter reads, "Religious liberty has been, and always will be, a bedrock principle of our country and no president can change that truth."