President Donald Trump speaks on on Memorial Day, May 29, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. (Getty)
President Donald Trump‘s travel ban was dealt another big blow June 12, as a panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a revised executive order that would limit travel from six predominately Muslim countries to the U.S.
The three judges of the court in San Francisco issued a ruling that upheld an injunction that blocked parts of Trump’s travel ban. It’s the same court that refused to reinstate Trump’s original travel ban executive order in February.
Read the formal conclusion from the judges below.
We conclude that the President, in issuing the Executive Order, exceeded the scope of authority delegated to him by Congress. In suspending the entry of more than 180 million nationals from six countries, suspending the entry of all refugees and reducing the cap on the admission of refugees from 110,000 to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, the President did not meet the essential precondition to exercising his delegated authority.
The President must make a sufficient finding that the entry of these classes of people would be ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States.’
The decision to do so comes after federal Judge Derrick K. Watson of Hawaii blocked major parts of the ban in March — including the temporary ban on refugees. Watson wrote in his ruling that past statements by Trump and his administration made it clear that the executive order was trying to disfavor Muslims.
That decision was appealed, and the three judges of the 9th Circuit largely affirmed that same ruling.
One part of the executive order that was lifted, however, allows the government to start reviewing its vetting procedures for those immigrants trying to enter the country.
Read the court’s full decision in the 86-page document below:
9th Circuit Court Travel Ban Decision by Chris on Scribd
In the above ruling, the court made a lone reference to a Trump tweet June 5 that said we need a “travel ban” for certain dangerous countries, counting it as an official statement from the president.
It seems highly likely that the June 12 decision by the 9th Circuit judges will be appealed to the Supreme Court, as the Trump administration has already requested a Supreme Court review of a similar decision issued by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia in May.