Appeals Court Presses Trump Administration on Travel Ban

Rasa - US President Donald Trump's order temporarily banning US entry to people from seven Muslim-majority countries came under intense scrutiny from a federal appeals court that questioned whether the ban unfairly targeted people over their religion.

News ID: 427214

Date: 08 February 2017 - 18:02

RNA - During a more than hour-long oral argument, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals pressed a government lawyer whether the Trump administration's national security argument was backed by evidence that people from the seven countries posed a danger, News 24 reported.

The 9th Circuit said at the end of the session it would issue a ruling as soon as possible. On Tuesday, the court said it would likely rule this week but would not issue a same-day ruling. The matter will ultimately likely go to the US Supreme Court.

Trump's Jan. 27 order barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, whom he would ban indefinitely.

Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has defended the measure, the most divisive act of his young presidency, as necessary for national security.

The order sparked protests and chaos at US and overseas airports. Opponents also assailed it as discriminatory against Muslims in violation of the US Constitution and applicable laws.

A federal judge in Seattle suspended the order last Friday and many travelers who had been waylaid by the ban quickly moved to travel to the United States while it was in limbo.

August Flentje, representing the Trump administration as special counsel for the U.S. Justice Department, told the appellate panel that "Congress has expressly authorized the president to suspend entry of categories of aliens" for national security reasons.

"That’s what the president did here," Flentje said at the start of the oral argument conducted by telephone and live-streamed on the internet.

He said both Congress and the previous administration of Democrat Barack Obama had determined that those seven countries posed the greatest risk of terrorism and had in the past put stricter visa requirements on them.

Noah Purcell, solicitor general for the state of Washington, began his argument urging the court to serve "as a check on executive abuses."

"The president is asking this court to abdicate that role here," Purcell said. "The court should decline that invitation."

The judges pummeled both sides with questions. Clifton pushed both attorneys about whether there was evidence the ban was intended to discriminate against Muslims.

"I don't think allegations cut it at this stage," Clifton told Purcell.

Trump frequently promised during his 2016 election campaign to curb illegal immigration, especially from Mexico, and to crack down on Islamist violence.

National security veterans, major US technology companies and law enforcement officials from more than a dozen states have backed a legal effort against the ban.

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