US judges have ruled on President Trump’s Muslim ban and have decided that the world is full of potential Americans who may one day wish to travel to the US, despite their race, colour, or religion.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the block on Trump’s executive order banning Muslim travel to the US, based on the administration failing to provide “any evidence” to justify the measure.
President Donald Trump is furious with the judicial branch of the U.S. government.
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Trump later declared the appellate court’s conclusion as “A disgraceful decision!”
LAWFARE: “Remarkably, in the entire opinion, the panel did not bother even to cite this (the) statute.” A disgraceful decision!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 10 February 2017
CNN Politics reports:
The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel means that citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries will continue to be able to travel to the US, despite Trump’s executive order last month.
It is a significant political setback to Trump’s new administration and raises questions about how the courts will view his apparent vision for an expansive use of executive power from the Oval Office on which he is anchoring the early weeks of his presidency.
“The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States,” the judges wrote.
“Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all.”
The judges added that while “the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies… the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination.”
Trump immediately tweeted his reaction to the ruling: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 9 February 2017
“It’s a political decision, we’re going to see them in court, and I look forward to doing that,” Trump told reporters in the White House Thursday. “It’s a decision that we’ll win, in my opinion, very easily.”
Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton celebrated the decision, tweeting simply “3-0.”
3-0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) 10 February 2017
The states of Washington and Minnesota had challenged the ban.
“Bottom line, this is a complete victory for the state of Washington,” said state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision effectively granted everything we sought.”
Washington state Solicitor General Noah Purcell, who argued the case, responded to Trump’s tweet on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“The irony from our perspective is that we’ve seen him in court twice now, and we’ve won both times. It’s not like it doesn’t count until you get to the Supreme Court,” Purcell said.
The Justice Department is reviewing the decision, it said in a statement.
But given that the Supreme Court currently lacks its ninth member, there a real chance of a 4-4 split on the bench along ideological lines, which would have the effect of affirming the ruling of the 9th Circuit, inflicting a more permanent blow to the new administration.
Motion for stay, 9th Circuit Order, 9 February 2017 by The Guardian on Scribd
